Impact of resource sharing in manufacturing on logistical key figures

Increasing fluctuations in demand or unforeseen disruptions have a disturbing impact on logistical key figures of manufacturing companies. Common countermeasures, e.g. the increase of the production capacity by adding new machines, always lead to improvements of single key figures while worsening others simultaneously. In the light of increasing fluctuations in manufacturing, new approaches have to be considered. We propose the utilization of resource sharing for manufacturing companies as a possible solution in analogy to shared loads in transport logistics. In this context, we refer to production machines as shared resources. Each cooperating company allows others to access its manufacturing resources according to a cooperation agreement. This concept empowers companies to deal with the disturbing events by distributing orders to cooperation partners instead of maintaining safety capacities or redundant systems. In this paper we discuss the opportunities and impediments of shared resources in the area of production enterprises. We further provide an outlined concept for its implementation into practice with respect to technological innovations on the one hand and practical requirements on the other hand. Our argumentation is supported by a simulation study, which quantifies the impact of resource sharing on logistical key figures. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.