Managing flexible capacity in a make-to-order environment

被引:58
作者
Bish, EK [1 ]
Muriel, A
Biller, S
机构
[1] Virginia Polytech Inst & State Univ, Dept Ind & Syst Engn, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
[2] Univ Massachusetts, Dept Mech & Ind Engn, Amherst, MA USA
[3] Univ Salamanca, Dept Econ & Hist Econ, Salamanca, Spain
[4] Gen Motors Res & Dev Ctr, Mfg Syst Res Lab, Warren, MI USA
关键词
resource flexibility; capacity allocation; supply chain performance; demand uncertainty; operational hedging;
D O I
10.1287/mnsc.1040.0322
中图分类号
C93 [管理学];
学科分类号
12 ; 1201 ; 1202 ; 120202 ;
摘要
Flexible capacity has been shown to be very effective to hedge against forecast errors at the investment stage. In a make-to-order environment, this flexibility can also be used to hedge against variability in customer orders in the short term. For that purpose, production levels must be adjusted each period to match current demands, to give priority to the higher margin product, or to satisfy the closest customer. However, this will result in swings in production, inducing larger order variability at upstream suppliers and significantly higher component inventory levels at the manufacturer. Through a stylized two-plant, two-product capacitated manufacturing setting, we show that the performance of the system depends heavily on the allocation mechanism used to assign products to the available capacity. Although managers would be inclined to give priority to higher-margin products or to satisfy customers from their closest production site, these practices lead to greater swings in production, result in higher operational costs, and may reduce profits.
引用
收藏
页码:167 / 180
页数:14
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