Towards increasing robustness in global production networks by means of an integrated disruption management

Manufacturing companies operating in global production networks face rising complexities and increasing susceptibilities to disruptions. For coping with disruptions, companies are in need of a holistic, comprehensive disruption management, involving all network actors to find optimal measures. However, today’s disruption management approaches are characterized by intuitive, experienced-based reactions, limiting themselves to solely the production or the logistics perspective and hence not permitting an overarching reaction. Therefore, this paper presents an integrated approach to disruption management, combining the production and logistics perspectives. It incorporates DoE and metamodelling methods in a simulation model to enable efficient, robust decision-making in highly complex environments

Robustheitssteigerung in Produktionsnetzwerken mithilfe eines integrierten Störungsmanagements

Manufacturing companies operating in global production networks face increasing susceptibilities to disruptions that may have far-reaching consequences for the entire network. To cope with disruptions and to maintain the network\u27s performance even if disruptions occur, companies are in need of a holistic, systematic disruption management, which includes all network actors in the identification of advantageous reaction measures and thus ensures the network\u27s robustness against disruptions. However, current implementations of operational disruption management are mostly exclusively based on experience or intuition and are limited to individual, production or logistics-related partners or areas, hence not forcing a holistically advantageous reaction. Therefore, the objective of the present thesis lies in the development of a methodology for increasing robustness in production networks by means of an integrated disruption management, taking both production and logistics perspectives into account. Based on the analysis and modelling of significant, production- and logistics-related disruptions, a simulation-based approach is used to identify (combinations of) countermeasures that are suitable both for the elimination of disruptions as well as the minimization of their consequences. The simulation thereby combines design of experiments with methods of metamodeling in order to obtain comprehensive statements about the interactions between disruptions, countermeasures and system performance and thus about the suitability of certain measures. Based on the knowledge about the suitability of certain measures, proactive strategies are derived, which promote the implementation of advantageous measures from a planning point of view by appropriately adjusting the respective capacities in the production network. This combined approach, which optimally coordinates the planning and control components of disruption management, allows to increase robustness in production networks. Within the scope of the research project FlexPLN, the developed methodology has been discussed and applied to a use case from the aviation industry. The results thereby do not only unveil that a joint consideration of production and logistics measures provides a promising means for a comprehensive understanding of disruptions and their consequences for production networks, but also indicate that a metamodeling-based approach might be meaningful to predict suitable countermeasures for the reaction to disruptions

Production plan based recovery of vehicle routing plans within integrated transportnetworks : Forschungsinitiative des BMWi "ProveIT" : Individueller Abschlussbericht : Projektlaufzeit: 01.11.2013 - 31.10.2016 : Stand: 24.04.2017

Bedingt durch die stochastische Natur des Verkehrsgeschehens, menschliche Fehler oder technisches Versagen kommt es in Logistiksystemen fortwährend zu Abweichungen von einem geplanten Sollzustand. Um das System wieder zurück in den gewünschten Sollzustand zu überführen, sind oftmals aufwändige Eingriffe erforderlich. Die zunehmende Verbreitung von Konzepten wie der Just-in-Time Anlieferung sowie das Senken von Sicherheitsbeständen aus Gründen der Verschlankung der Supply Chain führen dazu, dass die Vulnerabilität von Logistiksystemen für derartige Störungen zunimmt. Ohne angemessenen Eingriff kann eine Störung im Transport sogar zum Bandstillstand führen. Ob ein Eingriff sinnvoll oder angemessen ist, wird heutzutage von einem menschlichen Disponenten beurteilt. Diese Entscheidung ist jedoch sehr komplex: Selbst wenn dem menschlichen Planer alle notwendigen Informationen zur Verfügung stehen, ist nicht sichergestellt, dass die Qualität der getroffenen Entscheidung ausreichend gut ist. Das Konsortium von ProveIT hatte sich daher zum Ziel gesetzt, den Planer in die Lage zu versetzen, objektiv richtige, rechtzeitige und automatisierte Eingriffe in vernetzte Logistiksysteme zu ermöglichen, um so wirtschaftliche und stabile Lieferketten zu gestalten. Das IFL übernahm dabei die Erstellung des Gesamtkonzepts, die Erstellung eines übergreifenden Datenmodells, die Erstellung eines Abweichungsmodells sowie die Untersuchung von logistischer Stabilität in Transportsystemen