A SIMULATION STUDY OF THE MAKE-TO-STOCK AND MAKE-TO-ORDER PRODUCTION

摘要

In order to keep competitive, it is common for manufacturing companies in several industrial sectors to offer the possibility for product customization. However, the delivery times may become quite long, particularly if the utilization of resources is high. Therefore, in order to maintain delivery times short, products may be manufactured in two stages. In the first, standard components are made-to-stock. In the second, these components are customized into different end products. The paper investigates the impact of load-based order release to the second stage, when combined with a simple replenishment control policy at the first stage. We also investigate the impact of unbalanced workloads between the two stages. Results of a simulation study show that extra capacity at the first stage have a greater positive effect on the percentage of tardy orders, while extra capacity at the second stage, only slightly influence this.