2 research outputs found
Multi-product cost and value stream modelling in support of business process analysis
To remain competitive, most Manufacturing Enterprises (MEs) need cost effective and responsive business processes with capability to realise multiple value streams specified by changes in customer needs. To achieve this, there is the need to provide reusable computational representations of organisational structures, processes, information, resources and related cost and value flows especially in enterprises realizing multiple products. Current best process mapping techniques do not suitably capture attributes of MEs and their systems and thus dynamics associated with multi-product flows which impact on cost and value generation cannot be effectively modelled and used as basis for decision making. Therefore, this study has developed an integrated multiproduct dynamic cost and value stream modelling technique with the embedded capability of capturing aspects of dynamics associated with multiple product realization in MEs.
The integrated multiproduct dynamic cost and value stream modelling technique rests on well experimented technologies in the domains of process mapping, enterprise modelling, system dynamics and discrete event simulation modelling.
The applicability of the modelling technique was tested in four case study scenarios. The results generated out of the application of the modelling technique in solving key problems in case study companies, showed that the derived technique offers better solutions in designing, analysing, estimating cost and values and improving processes required for the realization of multiple products in MEs, when compared with current lean based value stream mapping techniques. Also the developed technique provides new modelling constructs which best describe process entities, variables and business indicators in support of enterprise systems design and business process (re) engineering. In addition to these benefits, an enriched approach for translating qualitative causal loop models into quantitative simulation models for parametric analysis of the impact of dynamic entities on processes has been introduced.
Further work related to this research will include the extension of the technique to capture relevant strategic and tactical processes for in-depth analysis and improvements. Also further research related to the application of the dynamic producer unit concept in the design of MEs will be required
Enterprise modelling in support of methods based engineering: lean implementation in an SME
Popular âmethods-basedâ approaches to engineering enterprises include: BPR,
Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, TQM, JIT, Lean and Agile Manufacturing.
Generally the industrial application of such methods-based approaches leads to long
lead-times, high costs, and poorly justified engineering projects that do not prepare
the organization for future change. These outcomes are to be expected because (1)
invariably Manufacturing Enterprises (MEs) constitute very complex and dynamic
systems that naturally require complex design and change processes and (2) current
methods-based approaches to organizational design and change are not analytically
well founded.
Therefore the authors argue that a framework and modelling toolset are required to
facilitate ongoing and integrated application of methods-based engineering
approaches, providing underlying modelling structures and concepts to âsystemizeâ
and âquantifyâ key aspects of organization design and change. Unless suitable
decomposition, quantitative and qualitative modelling principles are used to underpin
an approach such as a Lean Manufacturing, deficiencies will remain. Often, MEs
adopt the âwe need be leanâ mindset without holistic understandings of causal and
temporal impacts of such philosophies on ME processes, resource systems and current
and possible future workflows. Enterprise Modelling (EM) partially addresses the
aforementioned problems and can support the development of robust understandings
about current enterprise processes and potential capabilities of systems. However in
general, current EM techniques are geared best to capturing and organizing relatively
enduring knowledge and data about any given organization but are themselves
deficient in respect to replicating and predicting dynamic system behaviors.
This paper presents a model driven approach to organization design and change in
support of methods-based engineering, applying Lean Manufacturing principles, with
a UK based bearing manufacturer. EM and various derivative Simulation Modelling
(SM) views were generated to display system behaviors under changing scenarios