Title: A multiple performance analysis of market-capacity integration policies

Authors: Ahmed M. Deif, Hoda A. ElMaraghy

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Service Engineering, Nile University, Cairo, Egypt. ' Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Research Centre (IMS), Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department, University of Windsor, ON, N9B 3P4, Canada

Abstract: A model that uses simulation augmented with Design of Experiments (DOE) is presented to analyse the performance of a Make-to-Order (MTO) reconfigurable manufacturing system with scalable capacity. Unlike the classical capacity scaling policies, the proposed hybrid capacity scaling policy is determined using multiple performance measures that reflect cost, internal stability and responsiveness. The impact of both tactical capacity and marketing policies and their interaction on the overall performance was analysed using DOE techniques and real case data. In addition to the different insights about the trade-offs involved in capacity planning decisions, the presented results challenged the conventional capacity planning wisdoms in MTO about the negative role of the capacity scalability delay time. Finally the analysis demonstrated the importance of inter-functional integration between capacity and marketing policies. [Received 3 February 2010; Revised 13 August 2010; Accepted 6 September 2010]

Keywords: capacity planning; RMS; reconfigurable manufacturing systems; DOE; design of experiments; simulation; make-to-order; MTO; performance measures; cost; internal stability; responsiveness; marketing policies; capacity scalability delay; market-capacity integration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2011.041126

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2011 Vol.6 No.3, pp.191 - 214

Published online: 09 May 2015 *

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