Push/Pull Parts Production Policy Optimization in the ATO Environment

Within the Assembly to Order (ATO) production strategy, the common approach is to produce the parts to assemble with a Push-Make to Stock policy.In recent decades, the effects of the modern Just in Time (JIT) moved to a Pull-Make to Order policy. Assembled parts characterized by wide variety and huge storage space utilization are critical, and a proper Push/Pull production policy definition is required. An appropriate balance of storage space utilization and setup times leads to the optimization of the production policy. The aim of this paper is to define a bi-objective mathematical optimization model to assign the most suitable production policy to the parts within the production mix in an ATO industrial context. A numerical simulation and an operative case study showcases the model application, proving the industrial relevance of this research.

The Research on the Method of Constructing BOM for Small and Medium Assemble-to-Order Manufacturing Enterprises

In order to improve the efficiency of production and organization for small and medium assembly-to-order manufacturing enterprises, a new method of constructing BOM for these enterprises is introduced in this paper.Firstly,we analyze the process of assemble-to-order production.And then, a few important problems that should be paid attention to during the process of building the BOM is analyzed. Finally,we propose a new method of building a modular BOM.By dividing product function into modules and constructing modular manufacturing BOM,enterprises will respond to customer ord

A New Product Information Model for ERP Systems in Assembly-to-Order Environment

Basically, present enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) do not perform well in an assembly-to-order (ATO) environment due to the lack of effective management of product varieties. To support customized requirements and frequent engineering changes (ECs), we propose a manufacturing-oriented product information model (OMPIM), which consists of item property information and structure information. The proposed model has been applied to an ERP system of an automobile plant.

Virtual Supply Chain Configuration for Product Families: Conceptualization and Formalism

The rationale of product families for mass customization has attracted much attention from both academia and industry alike. While the product family strategy facilitates product differentiation and customization, it inevitably leads to a high variety issue in the downstream fulfillment process. In particular, when assembly-to-order and outsourcing become common practices, the supply chain decisions are deemed to be very complicated in order to accommodate the diverse product and process variants associated with product families. With focus on variety management, this paper proposes a virtual supply chain (VSC) configuration concept. The general gist is to manage various supply chain variants under a generic umbrella. It emphasizes the conceptualization and modeling of VSC to enhance the power of variety handling, with respect to supply chains, as well as products and processes. A domain-based reference model is employed to identify and coordinate the decision factors of supply chains. These decision factors are used to model the VSC based on formal semantics and object-oriented modeling techniques. The management of supply chain variety is formulated as the VSC configuration problem, and is coped with variety handlers and their states. A case study of electrical motor global supply chains is reported. It is demonstrated that the generic characteristics of VSC excel in coordinating the decisions regarding product, process and supply chains towards mass customization.