Innovative Approaches for Global Production Networks: Global Footprint Design: An Evolutionary Approach

摘要

The continuous growth of production networks has led to a threefold complexity issue for multinational companies. Firstly, it lies in the tremendous number of design options taking into regard all product groups and their production processes which need to be allocated to the amount of existing or new production sites. The second complexity issue is characterized by a short amount of time available in companies for highly important decisions. The third complexity problem lies in the complexity evaluation within the production network taking into account product, manufacturing and organisational structures. These three challenges are addressed within the scope of an approach which avails itself of a digital tool using interactive computing methods. While the complexity of the solution space is handled through a mathematical optimization, visual components help to understand and analyze the given solution through interactive computing. The identification of complexity drivers within production networks constitutes the final challenge.