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Enterprise Design for Mass Customisation: The Control Model Methodology

Price, precision and speed will remain major competitiveness determinants, but manufacturing companies will increasingly need to provide greater product variety and customer focus. The challenge is therefore to achieve mass customisation-the ability to provide variety and individual customisation at prices comparable to standard goods and services. Existing manufacturing approaches such as Enterprise Resource Planning investments or lean production seldom provide the required performance. The Control Model (CM) methodology was developed at SINTEF/NTNU to design enterprises for mass customisation. Principles of this methodology include differentiation of manufacturing, simplification of material flow, strategic positioning of stocks, decentralised decision-making in clearly defined control areas, and flow-oriented information. The CM methodology described here has been successfully applied in more than 20 manufacturing companies.

Global supply chain control systems: a conceptual framework for the global control centre

The operation of global supply chains is challenging due to the complexity in product and information flows, diversity in sites, localisation and processes and the information processing needed for coordination and control. In order to be competitive, manufacturing supply networks should strive to use information to create transparent and visible demand patterns and to create an efficient balance of supply and demand by an integrated and coordinated manufacturing planning and control system. In this article, a framework for developing global control centres (GCCs) is presented that includes a global control model, performance measurement system, information and communications technology (ICT) and organisation of roles and responsibilities. The framework has been further tested in a company for realising a GCC. The main challenges for realisation include control issues, information handling and ICT and management of change and organisational resistance.

The Application of Lean Production Control Methods within a Process-Type Industry: The Case of Hydro Automotive Structures

Lean production has lead to substantial improvements in performance across many industries and is widely implemented today. Certain aspects of lean such as the focus on workplace organisation (5S) and total productive maintenance (TPM) have been applied to all types of industrial processes, while lean production control methods have mostly been applied in discrete and repetitive, assembly-type production. We believe that the real benefits of lean, for example throughput time and inventory reduction, are only realised when lean production control methods are implemented effectively. Therefore, we investigate the traditional lean production control methods of Heijunka and Kanban, and evaluate the concept of every product every (EPE) as an alternative lean production control method for the process-type industries.

Proposing a quick best practice maturity test for supply chain operations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a quick maturity test to assist a companys development of a supply chain operations strategy. Maturity tests and models have been developed within several areas, but there is a lack of maturity tests targeting supply chain operations.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review on maturity models is carried out in order to build the structure of the test, while a literature review on best practices in supply chain management is the basis for the test content.Findings – The proposed maturity test is an audit scheme built on best practice statements within seven key strategic decision areas – strategy, control, processes, materials, resources, information and organisation. The test is designed with simplicity as a key feature and takes only one hour to complete. The test results are the input to strategic decisions regarding use of best practices in supply chain operations.Practical implications – Supply chain managers ask for a simple and quick tool t...

Strategies for customized shipbuilding with different customer order decoupling points

The ship design and construction industry serves a considerable range of market segments, with different levels of required customization, different demand volumes, and other product and market variations. In order to effectively respond to various market requirements, strategies and related work processes need to be differentiated. An important strategic concept to make distinctions among strategies is the customer order decoupling point, that is, the point in the value chain where the product is linked to a specific customer order. This article aims to analyse and compare strategies for customized, low-volume ship design and construction from the perspective of the customer order decoupling point and to link them to product and market characteristics. It is based on a case study at the Ulstein Group, an established Norwegian ship designer and builder. The study allowed us to define ‘customized design’ and ‘standardized design’ as two different strategies that fundamentally differ in terms of the customer order decoupling point. In the former, customized ships are offered in a process where most activities are driven by the expectations and requirements of a particular customer. In the latter, the customer is given only a limited choice of predefined, standardized, and well-proved options. We conclude that customer order decoupling point positions upstream in the value chain imply high levels of flexibility and customization, while downstream positions allow short lead times, high delivery precision, and lower prices. The customer order decoupling point perspective provides a useful framework in which to analyse the ship design and construction industry.

Analyzing the factors affecting coordination in engineer-to-order supply chain

Purpose – Engineer-to-order (ETO) supply chains involve multiple companies for performing complex projects. The ability to effectively coordinate cross-business activities is essential to avoid delays, cost overruns and quality problems. Coordination is related to a number of contingent factors that need to be better comprehended. The purpose of this paper is to highlight such contingent factors and to analyse their effect on the occurrence of project delays. Design/methodology/approach – A multiple case study is used to investigate the moderating factors affecting coordination in projects carried out in an ETO supply chain. Such factors are examined through a cross-analysis of six shipbuilding projects based on data from interviews, project documentation and clips from the media press. Findings – In ETO supply chains, the engineering and production activities involve mutual interdependences that need to be coordinated. The findings suggest that both the integration of engineering and production and the p...

The role of coordination in avoiding project delays in an engineer-to-order supply chain

Purpose – ETO supply chains produce high-value products on a project basis. The occurrence of delays is a major problem that impacts the performance of a company and its supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cause of delays and to understand the role of coordination to mitigate them. Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth case study was conducted to identify problems that delay a project and to examine such problems from a systemic perspective. Based on data from interviews, group meetings, field observations and documentation, a pattern is proposed to explain the relation between coordination and lead time. Findings – Conceptually, to reduce the project lead time a higher level of concurrency is necessary. However, more concurrency increases the interdependencies between activities, something which demands more coordination effort. Since the coordination mechanisms applied are not appropriate to cope with the increasing coordination effort, a number of problems appear causing rewor...

Integration Alternatives for Ship Designers and Shipyards

The offshore oil industry in Norway has for decades required advanced special purpose equipment for its operations. Norwegian shipbuilders have supplied the offshore industry and specialized in producing customized and technologically advanced ships. Shipbuilding is a typical Engineer-to-Order (ETO) industry. While the ship concept and design continues to be developed in Norway, ship production is increasingly performed at foreign yards. This characteristic makes the industry an interesting case for studying integration between actors. This paper presents a typology of different integration alternatives for ship designers and shipyards. The three alternatives presented are ownership, partner yard and market yard. The paper also identifies and discusses industry-relevant business factors that are affected by the choice of integration level.

Supply chain strategies for speciality foods: a Norwegian case study

Abstract Despite strong market interest in speciality foods, producers find market access and distribution challenging. This exploratory research includes a literature review and five case studies of supply chains relating to shellfish, cheese, meat, potato and miscellaneous speciality foods in the mid-Norway region. The study identifies key supply chain configuration parameters from the extant literature, and these are used to analyse the cases. The study makes three main contributions to the literature: an analytical framework for analysing the supply chain characteristics of speciality foods; important supply chain factors for accessing the conventional food supply chain; and five propositions for improving market access. We argue that the speciality foods supply chain should be configured according to these propositions to ensure responsiveness to customer needs and to strengthen market access.

ERP Support for Lean Production

In the traditional sense, IT has often been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production. However, as the business world changes and competition from low-cost countries increases, new models must be developed which deliver competitive advantage by combining contemporary technological advances with the lean paradigm. By applying an action research approach, this paper evaluates the support functionality of ERP systems for lean production. We address the fundamental principles of lean production in comparison with the functionality and modules of a contemporary ERP system.