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Supply Chain Planning Classification

Industry experience a need to shift in focus from internal production planning towards planning in the supply network. In this respect customer oriented thinking becomes almost a common good amongst companies in the supply network. An increase in the use of information technology is needed to enable companies to better tune their production planning with customers and suppliers. Information technology opportunities and supply chain planning systems facilitate companies to monitor and control their supplier network. In spite if these developments, most links in todays supply chains make individual plans, because the real demand information is not available throughout the chain. The current systems and processes of the supply chains are not designed to meet the requirements now placed upon them. For long term relationships with suppliers and customers, an integrated decision-making process is needed in order to obtain a satisfactory result for all parties. Especially when customized production and short lead-time is in focus. An effective value chain makes inventory available and visible among the value chain members, minimizes response time and optimizes total inventory value held throughout the chain. In this paper a supply chain planning classification grid is presented based current manufacturing classifications and supply chain planning initiatives.

Dealing with constraint issues in agile discrete manufacturing companies

Most manufacturing small and medium sized companies (SMEs) deal with constraint issues on a daily basis in terms of missing materials or lack of production capacity. Only a few of these companies have implemented Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems, which enables constraint based planning, as existing APS systems are aimed at the high-end market (e.g. Manugistics and 12) or part of large ERP suites (e.g. Oracle, SAP or BaaN). This means that the infeasible plans are sent to the shop floor, or that the planner has dealt with the constraint issues manually. Both situations are unacceptable in an agile manufacturing company.