scholarly journals Dual Sourcing and Smoothing Under Nonstationary Demand Time Series: Reshoring with SpeedFactories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert N. Boute ◽  
Stephen M. Disney ◽  
Joren Gijsbrechts ◽  
Jan A. Van Mieghem
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Optimal Policy ◽  
Economic Benefit ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Dual Sourcing ◽  
Variable Demand ◽  
Nonstationary Demand ◽  
Short Lead Time ◽  
Cost Characteristics

We investigate near-shoring a small part of the global production to local SpeedFactories that serve only the variable demand. The short lead time of the responsive SpeedFactory reduces the risk of making large volumes in advance, yet it does not involve a complete reshoring of demand. Using a break-even analysis, we investigate the lead time, demand, and cost characteristics that make dual sourcing with a SpeedFactory desirable compared with complete off-shoring. Our analysis uses a linear generalization of the celebrated order-up-to inventory policy to settings where capacity costs exist. The policy allows for order smoothing to reduce capacity costs and performs well relative to the (unknown) optimal policy. We highlight the significant impact of auto-correlated and nonstationary demand series, which are prevalent in practice yet challenging to analyze, on the economic benefit of reshoring. Methodologically, we adopt a linear policy and normally distributed demand and use Z–transforms to present exact analyses. This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management.

scholarly journals Managing Appointment Booking Under Customer Choices

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (9) ◽  
pp. 4280-4298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Liu ◽  
Peter M. van de Ven ◽  
Bo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Optimal Policy ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Constant Factor ◽  
Customer Preference ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Demand And Capacity ◽  
Single Set

Motivated by the increasing use of online appointment booking platforms, we study how to offer appointment slots to customers to maximize the total number of slots booked. We develop two models, nonsequential offering and sequential offering, to capture different types of interactions between customers and the scheduling system. In these two models, the scheduler offers either a single set of appointment slots for the arriving customer to choose from or multiple sets in sequence, respectively. For the nonsequential model, we identify a static randomized policy, which is asymptotically optimal when the system demand and capacity increase simultaneously, and we further show that offering all available slots at all times has a constant factor of two performance guarantee. For the sequential model, we derive a closed form optimal policy for a large class of instances and develop a simple, effective heuristic for those instances without an explicit optimal policy. By comparing these two models, our study generates useful operational insights for improving the current appointment booking processes. In particular, our analysis reveals an interesting equivalence between the sequential offering model and the nonsequential offering model with perfect customer preference information. This equivalence allows us to apply sequential offering in a wide range of interactive scheduling contexts. Our extensive numerical study shows that sequential offering can significantly improve the slot fill rate (6%–8% on average and up to 18% in our testing cases) compared with nonsequential offering. Given the recent and ongoing growth of online and mobile appointment booking platforms, our research findings can be particularly useful to inform user interface design of these booking platforms. This paper was accepted by Gad Allon, operations management.

Development of Tactile Globe for the Visually Impaired (Automation of Marking Using an Industrial Robot)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-277
Author(s):  
Naoki Asakawa ◽  
◽  
Ryota Kito ◽  
Keigo Takasugi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Tools ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Industrial Robot ◽  
Spherical Surface ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
3D Cad ◽  
Cad Cam ◽  
Short Lead Time

In spite of the importance of the globe as an educational and cultural tool, for visually impaired users, common globes are just spherical objects. Although there are commercially available globes for visually impaired users, globes that have convex and concave features on the surface denoting coastlines and country borders, most of them are expensive because they are made by hand. Consequently, visually impaired users wishing to purchase globes have a very limited range of choices. In terms of industrial production, producing globes with convex and concave surfaces essentially involves machining a spherical surface. For instance, with common machine tools, even positioning or marking a spherical surface of a certain size is very difficult operation since the posture of the tool must change dramatically. The purpose of the study is to develop a CAM system to design the surface of tactile globes suitable for individual needs and to manufacture them for the visually impaired at low cost and with a short lead time. In the report, as the first step, a method of holding the sphere and marking it via 3D-CAD/CAM technology and the control technology of an industrial robot is proposed. As a result, the system enables the marking of the coastlines and country borders on spheres automatically using our own CAM system and an industrial robot.

Designing the Customer Order Decoupling Point to Facilitate Mass Customization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Guo ◽  
Suhao Chen ◽  
Janet K. Allen ◽  
Farrokh Mistree
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Test Problem ◽  
Manufacturing Enterprises ◽  
Customer Order ◽  
Short Lead Time ◽  
Auto Parts ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Parts Manufacturing

Abstract As globalization continues, manufacturing enterprises need to do mass customization with a short lead-time, to satisfy evolving market demands in different regions. One challenge of mass customization is to fulfill orders swiftly at an acceptable cost, meanwhile maintaining the service quality. To do this, the customer order decoupling point – CODP, where the value-adding activities take place, should be designed and adapted to the changing market demands. In this paper, we propose a Formulation-Exploration method to make decisions on CODP positioning and improve the supply chain to support mass customization. A test problem of auto parts manufacturing is used to establish the efficacy of our method. The Formulation-Exploration method can be used to design supply chains to manage mass customization of products, especially when information is incomplete and inaccurate, goals conflict and multiple types of uncertainty add complexity. In this paper, we focus on the method rather than the results per se.

Supply chain performance measures for producers and processors of premium beef cuts: A conjoint approach

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan McDermott ◽  
Simon Lovatt ◽  
Scott Koslow
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
High Price ◽  
Supply Chain Performance ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Beef Producers ◽  
Short Lead Time ◽  
Conjoint Approach

The performance measures important to New Zealand beef producers and processors in their selling and buying decisions were studied using a conjoint analysis methodology. 98 producers and 5 processors were asked to rank and rate various scenarios. Producers preferred situations in which they received a high price, had high payment security, a premium for quality, had a short lead-time and the processor shared some information. Processors focussed on factors that enabled them to reduce their risk and cost of supply, and ensure traceability back to farms.

Twitter weather warnings: Communicating risk in 140 characters—the impact of imperative and declarative message style on weather risk perception and behavioral intentions

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam M. Rainear, MA ◽  
Kenneth A. Lachlan, PhD ◽  
Patric R. Spence, PhD
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Time Condition ◽  
Weather Risk ◽  
Short Lead Time ◽  
The Impact

Understanding how individuals utilize risk messages is important for protecting lives and gaining compliance toward safe behaviors. Recent advances in technology afford users with timeliness when needing to acquire information, and research investigating imperative and declarative message styles suggests utilizing both strategies is most effective. Similarly, the element of time can play a role when an individual engages in certain behaviors. This study employed an experimental design to better understand how imperative and declarative tweets, and time can contribute to risk perceptions and behavioral intentions. Results indicate the most negative affect is experienced after receiving an imperative-only tweet in a short-lead time condition, whereas a tweet utilizing both message styles in a long-lead time condition induces the most fear. Future research should investigate stylistic message elements on new media platforms to better understand how messages can be effectively sent and received by the intended audience within character-limited platforms.

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