Implications of form postponement to manufacturing: a cross case comparison

While much is written in the literature about the benefits and strategic impact of form postponement (FPp), little is still known about its application. We address ‘how’ FPp is applied in terms of its operational and logistics implications within manufacturing facilities. This paper is a retrospective study of the application of FPp in three diverse manufacturing environments: a manufacturer of specialist high voltage cabling equipment we call Electrico; a manufacturer of industrial electric motors we call Motorco; and a manufacturer of control systems and components mainly for automated telling machines we call Controlco. Our findings show that FPp improved responsiveness of manufacturing in all cases, but that none of the applications of FPp was ideal from a theoretical perspective. The production planning system must be both responsive and flexible to support the application. For highly customised products, the customer order decoupling point (CODP) must be located sufficiently upstream in the manufacturing process to avoid removal of components and time-consuming modifications. We present conclusions from all three studies, including an inventory management decision framework for FPp and a framework for the application of FPp which encompasses a number of practical considerations.     

Implications of form postponement to manufacturing a customized product

Postponement is an approach that helps to deliver more responsive supply chains. Form postponement (FPp) involves the delay of final manufacturing until a customer order is received and is commonly regarded as an approach to mass customization. However, while much is written in the literature about the benefits and strategic impact of FPp, little is still known about its application. The paper presents the second in a series of three studies, using a common research methodology, that address ‘how’ FPp is applied in terms of its operational implications within a manufacturing facility. It is a retrospective study of the application of FPp in a manufacturer of industrial electric motors referred to here as ‘Motorco’. Operational measures for products selected for FPp are compared with those for products that continued to be made under engineer-to-order and make-to-stock regimes. Propositions were tested that address operational implications of FPp within the manufacturing facility, as well as the impact of FPp on selected performance metrics and the demand profile for which FPp was the preferred regime. Multiple data collection methods were used whereby documentary, archival and database evidence were used to measure operational characteristics across a broad front. The findings show that FPp improved responsiveness of manufacturing, but it is involved in the removal of components and often time-consuming invasive modifications. This suggested that the Customer Order Decoupling Point (CODP) would be better located further up stream in the manufacturing process. Two alternative CODP locations are evaluated that prevent the removal of components, provide the same level of responsiveness and potentially improve delivery reliability. The production planning system was sufficiently responsive to support FPp. However, the bills of materials were inflexible, preventing the system from being used to process FPp orders. This case illustrates many of the operational implications of applying FPp to a complex (i.e. many part numbers) and truly customized product. A third and final study of a FPp application in a different production context has been completed that will provide further evidence of its operational implications.     

Operationalising form postponement from a decision-making perspective

Form postponement means delaying the commitment of inventory to the final configuration of a product as long as possible. Many firms today are striving to redesign their products and/or their manufacturing and supply chain processes to implement form postponement. Opportunities for form postponement, however, are sometimes lost in the companies’ production-planning processes. By focusing on the deferring of product mix decisions in the master production scheduling process, this paper shows that form postponement opportunities can be divided into two components: one whose pursuit necessarily requires product and/or transformation process redesign, the other that can be pursued by changing the sales forecasting and master production scheduling process alone. We develop an operational procedure to identify and quantify, for a given product family, all opportunities for form postponement and their two respective components. Then, we discuss and empirically illustrate how the proposed measurement procedure may support companies in changing their decision-making routines to implement form postponement. Finally, we set future research directions on form postponement suggested by our results.     

Implications of postponement for the supply chain

As a marketing, logistics and manufacturing concept, postponement has been around in the literature for a long time. Its application can also be dated to the 1920s. However, only in recent times has it been used as a supply chain strategy. Postponement fosters a new way of thinking about product design, process design and supply chain management. In this paper, we rethink the supply chain from a postponement point of view and present the implications of postponement for the decoupling point, supply chain integration, control of the supply chain and capacity planning issues. The objective is to extend the significance of postponement towards the perspective of a holistic supply chain context.     

Kaizen costing for lean manufacturing: a case study

In the past decade due to increasing global competition US firms have radically changed their manufacturing practices to improve their competitiveness. In pursuing this goal they have adopted a number of advanced techniques, such as just-in-time, total quality management, lean manufacturing, flexible manufacturing systems, process improvement, and design for manufacturability, to name a few. The objectives of all these programmes have been to reduce cost, improve quality, reduce cycle time, and increase flexibility on the factory floor. Support systems such as finance and cost management, however, have generally not kept pace with the level of corresponding operational changes being implemented. This paper presents a case study of kaizen costing as practised by Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, IRC Division. The purpose of this study is to describe a method used to set kaizen costs which will provide relevant cost data to support lean production decisions that would be useful to practitioners.     

Sustainable manufacturing: a case study of the forklift painting process

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and design for environment (DFE) methods were applied to assess opportunities for reducing the environmental impacts of forklift manufacturing unit processes and to redesign those unit processes to increase overall sustainability. The unit processes of forklift manufacture generating the most environmental emissions were identified by applying LCA methodology. The results show that eco-toxicity and human toxicity were the most significant impacts of the forklift manufacturing process overall. Also, within the manufacturing unit processes, cutting, welding and painting had the highest impact values. In order to minimise environmental impacts, a new paint was created with increased solid content over the existing solvent paint used in the painting process. In addition, by applying DFE methodology and the high solid paint, overcoat and drying steps were eliminated from the forklift painting process. As a result, the environmental index of a follow-up LCA showed that environmental impacts could be reduced by 20%, while volatile organic compound (VOC) and paint usage could be decreased by 30% and 20%, respectively.     

Implications of automation in engineer-to-order production:a case study

In order to retain a certain level of production in Norway,suppliers to the Norwegian maritime industry need to lower their production costs.Automation is generally an effective way of achieving this in standardized high-volume,low variety production.However,manufacturing companies in the Norwegian maritime industry typically supply capital-intensive,advanced and customized products in low volumes.In this engineer-to-order production situation,manual labor is traditionally preferred over automation.Nonetheless,such companies increasingly automate parts of their production.This paper presents a case of a supplier that has chosen to automate its welding operations,the implications and determinants of this decision.     

Solving a one-dimensional cutting-stock problem in a small manufacturing firm: a case study

This paper presents an evaluation of four different sequential approaches to solving the one-dimensional cutting-stock problem in an industrial setting where trim loss and pattern changes costs are of importance. The evaluation is made with sample problems generated from data of a manufacturing company as well as with real problems. Triangular distributions, which are representative of many practical environments, are introduced as proxies to the distribution of the lengths required. Conclusions are drawn based on the various problem sizes and distributions tested.     

Packaging postponement: a global packaging strategy

Postponement applications have been growing in recent years as international firms increasingly develop global products that are customized for local markets. The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the logistical principles of postponement and speculation. It explores the factors that favour packaging postponement: (a) modular products that can be customized for local markets; (b) products that gain volume, weight or value from packing; (c) unpredictable demand; (d) a large number of market‐based variations for a single formulation; and (e) situations where economies of scale in packaging and logistics can be optimized. Examples are presented. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of system dynamics modelling for a sustainable manufacturing system of an Indian automotive component manufacturing organisation: a case study

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Over the last few decades, the manufacturing industry has been a major contributor to pollution and consumes a greater portion of the world´s...     

A material allocation scheme for optical fibre cable manufacturing: a case study

Optical fibre cable manufacturing is a multistep process that combines individual fibres into colour-coded buffer tubes. These tubes are grouped together to make cables in which individual fibres are protected from external loads and environmental factors. This assembly process has a tree structure in which components are progressively combined into a finished cable. The main component, optical fibre, is held in inventory on spools in varying lengths and in both pre-coloured and natural states. Orders are received for lengths of finished cable. Since the glass fibre is the highest cost component of the cable, the allocation of fibre inventory to orders should be accomplished so that fibre scrap is minimized. In this paper a heuristic procedure for minimizing glass fibre scrap is presented. Computational results are given.     

A quantitative approach for measuring process innovation: a case study in a manufacturing company

Process management and innovation arguably remain among the concepts under focus of recent researches since there is no significantly outstanding method to measure and monitor the level of innovation in the manufacturing processes over a particular time period taking the fundamental activities of manufacturing processes into account. Although there are various studies relevant to process improvement, manufacturing processes are not focused on in the literature. This paper presents a novel performance indicator, called degree of process innovation, for monitoring and measuring innovation in manufacturing processes based on the four most important components among the fundamental activities of a manufacturing system. The components are namely Average Labour Utilisation, Cumulative Bottleneck Ratio, Unit Production Time and Unit Production Cost. The idea behind this approach has flourished on the basis of an indicator proposed in the literature to measure the general organisational improvements. The scope of that indicator has been narrowed down to manufacturing processes to accurately reflect the state of the manufacturing processes. The proposed approach has been verified with a case study in manufacturing industry, where each of the four sub-indicators was calculated based on the data provided and aggregated into the degree of process innovation. The innovation degree is successfully indicated.     

Quantifying benefits of conversion to lean manufacturing with discrete event simulation: A case study

Simulation is used to assist in the decision to implement lean manufacturing principles at an existing assembly operation. Models are developed for the existing assembly system, as well as for a new system (of similar capacity), that employ these principles. In addition to the manufacturing processes, the associated warehousing, inventory management, transportation, and production control/scheduling systems are included in the model to enable the quantification of lean manufacturing's impact on the total system. Simulation experiments measure each system's resource requirements and performance, thereby quantifying benefits to be derived from applying the shop-floor principles of lean manufacturing.     

延迟制造技术条件下单螺杆式压缩机生产改进研究

基于延迟制造技术的基本理论,主要研究单螺杆式压缩机的生产方法。分析运用延迟制造技术后。生产管理方面的变化情况,重点研究采用延迟制造技术后有关单螺杆式压缩机生产计划编制和工艺方法。最后对于延迟制造技术和大规模定制的广泛应用进行分析、总结。     

Applying the TOC thinking process in manufacturing: A case study

A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the Theory of Constraints thinking process logic tools in a manufacturing environment. The study firm performs design activities related to meeting future product requirements while concurrently meeting existing production schedules for the current design of the product. Current approaches to managing the firm's limited productive capacity do not allow for both design and production activities to occur simultaneously while meeting the customer's current product delivery schedule. Thus, despite their desire to satisfy their customer's future design requirements, management uses the majority of its production capacity to meet its customer's current product delivery schedule. This case study demonstrates how a team of employees used thinking process logic diagrams to document reality, identify a core conflict and problem, develop proposed changes to address the core problem, and create several detailed action plans to implement changes within the study organization. Initially, scenarios associated with some undesirable effects are used to understand how prevailing policies and behaviours result in less than desired production line performance. Then, a current reality tree is constructed to link the core problem or system constraint with the previously identified undesirable effects. Next, two major injections are developed to address the core problem in managing the production line as logically documented in a future reality tree. Finally, three transition trees are presented to guide the implementation of change at the study organization.     

Cell formation and layout designs in a cellular manufacturing environment a case study

This paper presents the application of a recent integrated approach for the design of cellular manufacturing, addressing, concurrently, all three phases of the design namely parts/machines grouping, intra-cell and inter-cell layout designs to a white-goods manufacturing company. It provides a platform to investigate the impact of the cell formation method on intra-cell and inter-cell layout designs, and vice versa, by generating multiple efficient layout designs for different cell partitioning strategies. This approach enables the decision-maker to have wider choices with regard to the different numbers of cells and to assess various criteria such as travelling cost, duplication of machines and space requirement against each alternative.     

Optimising and simulating the assembly line balancing problem in a motorcycle manufacturing company: a case study

In this paper, we present a real life assembly line balancing problem for a motorcycle manufacturing company. Results from the initial situation in the company are compared to those provided by a heuristic method and by a novel neighbourhood search method. An ARENA simulation model is developed to test the different proposals. The model was validated by comparing the simulation results from the initial company scenario with the real operation results. Consequently, the extension to the developed proposals allows us to select an adequate assembly line for the company, resulting in a greater productivity level and a more balanced line with respect to the operation times in the stations and the activity of the workers. The company has subsequently implemented our proposed schedule, obtaining remarkable improvements in its productivity.     

Activity-based costing in flexible manufacturing systems with a case study in a forging industry

The objective of this paper is to apply the activity-based costing (ABC) approach together with traditional costing (TC) for parts costing in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) with the A(2) level of automation. We propose a new model for the implementation of ABC using the product cost tree concept. First, the required resources and activities for each part are recorded, and then their costs are calculated using the appropriate cost formulae. This model was applied in a forging industry. A comparison and analysis between ABC and TC was then carried out based on the computational results obtained from the case study. The results indicate that the ABC outputs are more reliable than the TC outputs, and thus the ABC approach is a more acceptable tool for parts costing in FMS.