Ralph Riedel

Production management and Supply Chain Management in a global context

Beside single cases and research on very particular issues, cultural aspects are mostly neglected within the planning process as well as during the operation of global supply chains and networks. In this article a conceptual framework is developed that integrates cultural issues into the research and practice of supply chain planning and operating. The framework is based on theories of culture, psychology, decision processes and on concepts of SCM and networks. The ideas are supplemented with empirical evidence from case studies. This framework presents an extended view on supply chains and networks and contributes to the field of SCM research.

Integrating human behaviour into factory simulation- a feasibility study

As the environment of manufacturing enterprises is becoming more complex and dynamic this requires powerful tools for the support of decisions in manufacturing and production planning. Simulation as one of those tools has been widely applied in manufacturing and logistics. However, the models used for simulation are incomplete because the human factor in terms of its decision making and behaviour is considered only rudimentary. This leads to suboptimal decisions and to a gap when implementing solutions in practice. The paper presents an approach for enriching the common (technical) simulation models with need controlled human agents. The agent is based on a formalised motivation theory. In a feasibility study several typical settings, like ramp up curves and learning effects, were tested. The approach is unique in the field of simulation with a big potential for higher quality in analysing and designing production systems.

The Behavior of Suppliers in Supplier-Customer Relationships

Suppliers have become resources for innovation and competitive advantages. To realize those potentials specific competencies have to be developed in a partnership between customer and supplier. The success of those development projects and also the effort that has to be put in depend on several factors. One of those factors is the motivation of the supplier organization. An empirical study shows that the motivation can be described sufficiently exactly by particular characteristics. Moreover particular influencing factors with significant impact on supplier motivation could be extracted. Those findings can be used to control supplier development projects better which in turn will lead to qualitatively better results and a better cost-benefit ratio.

Managing projects in global manufacturing networks

In this paper the common standards of project management are discussed in the context of global manufacturing. In global manufacturing networks play a decisive role because the several activities of the value chain are distributed globally due to market, supply or cost issues. An extensive literature research shows that there is a need for incorporating human factors, especially cultural aspects, in the methodology for planning and control in international projects. Based on these theses some approaches are developed for the stronger consideration of culture in project management standards. The paper presents a completely new view on project management which will lead to a better understanding of intercultural projects and to an increase in the success rate of such projects.

Beherrschung der Variantenvielfalt mittels der Clusteranalyse

Kurzfassung Die wirtschaftliche und politische Situation, in der sich Unternehmen aktuell befinden, ist durch eine zunehmende Sättigung der Märkte geprägt. Der globale Wettbewerb zwingt die Unternehmen zu einem immer höheren Innovationstempo und verstärkt den Kostendruck in allen Bereichen. Zukunftsweisende Produktionseinrichtungen müssen daher einen verstärkten Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Markt- und Kundenorientierung leisten. Der Einsatz hochproduktiver, flexibler und kostengünstiger Fertigungssysteme kann wesentlich zu einer gesteigerten Wettbewerbsfähigkeit beitragen. Die steigende Variantenvielfalt erschwert jedoch die Standardisierung des bestehenden Produktspektrums. Daher ist eine Methode notwendig, die mit geringem Aufwand auch für Produktfamilien mit hohem Variantenspektrum das wirtschaftliche Optimum der Fertigungsprozesskette identifizieren kann und eine Zuordnung des Auftragsspektrums zu unterschiedlichen spezialisierten Fertigungseinrichtungen ermöglicht. Als Lösungsansatz für diese Problemstellung wird in diesem Artikel die Clusteranalyse vorgestellt. Im ersten Teil werden die theoretischen Grundlagen und das Konzept der Strukturermittlung dargestellt. Im zweiten Teil wird eine auf Basis der Methode der Clusteranalyse entwickelte Vorgehensweise zur Teilestrukturierung beschrieben.

Building Decision Support Systems for Acceptance

Production planning and control fulfill a crucial role in enterprises. Planning and scheduling activities are very complex, and take place within the enterprise and across the entire supply chain in order to achieve high quality products at lower cost, lower inventory and higher levels of customer service. Since the information that has to be processed in planning and scheduling functions is very complex information technology is used extensively to support these functions. In the field of manufacturing planning and control Decision Support Systems (DSS) are used. Those are also known as Advanced Planning Systems (APS).

Flexibility oriented design of production systems

The necessity of fulfilling customer requests leads to challenges for the production departments of manufacturing enterprises because a high product variety has to be managed at the same time with a high speed of order changes. If this variability cannot be compensated with sufficient process flexibility this will lead to an instable situation. Therefore a methodology would be very helpful which is able to analyze the necessary flexibility demand. The analysis of flexibility demand is crucial for the design of production systems. The objective must be to define the degree of flexibility that it is able to fulfill market demands. In the contribution a concept is presented for the flexibility oriented design of production systems which is derived from the management of energy supply and power plants. In order to work out the energy production in energy supply systems the demand is classified in certain zones: basic, middle and peak load. For each level a different production strategy is applied. Our central idea is to classify the demand in production regarding its variety in different classes in order to enable a differentiated capacity budgeting and to derive the optimal degree of flexibility.

Partner Selection in Innovation Alliance

With the scenario that emphasis of partner selection varies according to different motivations, this work aims to establish a mechanism to clearly identify relationships between motivations and selection criteria. Based on the cluster of motivations, criterion system is established with six items. Moreover, considering priority of motivations, it designs to adopt weights of criteria, which can be used for the efficient rank of candidates. Survey based on the experience of companies is also conducted for the analysis. In the end, our criterion system is confirmed to hold high reliable properties, and the weighting framework is also validated with empirical study to fit with multi motivations very well.

Cluster analysis as a method for the planning of production systems

Todays situation in manufacturing enterprises is characterized by unpredictability, high-frequency market changes and a turbulent environment. Changing order situation leads to new requirements with regard to output capacity. To some extent, companies have to meet contrary targets in order to stay competitive. These major targets are quality, cost and time. To achieve these targets in a balanced way, manufacturing companies need high flexibility as well as a high productivity at the same time. This is a paradigm shift especially for companies that produce standardized products. This paradigm shift also requires new planning methods. In the paper, the state of the art of methods for the designing of industrial facilities and their relevance to manufacturing enterprises is discussed. By studying those methods, it becomes apparent that planners in companies do not pay enough attention to the analysis of the current situation in production. For this stage of planning the authors improved the method of cluster analysis. The authors describe how to implement this method in industrial practice.

Entwicklung einer Methode zur Ableitung von Flexibilitätsklassen in der Produktion

Kurzfassung Die aktuelle wirtschaftliche und politische Situation, in der Unternehmen agieren, ist durch zunehmend gesättigte Märkte geprägt. Die Globalisierung schafft einen weltweiten Wettbewerb, der die Unternehmen zu einem immer höheren Innovationstempo zwingt und dabei den Kostendruck in allen Bereichen verstärkt. Wettbewerbsfähige Unternehmen zeichnen sich insbesondere durch eine starke Kundenorientierung, kurze Lieferzeiten, hohe Produktvielfalt und kurze Innovationszyklen aus. Die Notwendigkeit, die gestellten Kundenanforderungen umfassend zu erfüllen, stellt die wertschöpfenden Bereiche eines Unternehmens vor die Herausforderung, eine hohe Variantenvielfalt bei gleichzeitig hoher Auftragsänderungsgeschwindigkeit zu managen. Die starke Schwankung der Nachfrage für einzelne Varianten führt dabei häufig zu großer Unruhe in der Fertigung. Wird der Schwankung nicht mit der benötigten Flexibilität in den Prozessen begegnet, kann dies zur Instabilität der Fertigung führen. Aus dieser Problemstellung leitet sich der Bedarf nach einem Hilfsmittel zur Ermittlung des erforderlichen Flexibilitätsbedarfs auf Basis einer Produktionsprogrammanalyse ab. Der Beitrag stellt eine auf den Grundlagen des Kraftwerksmanagements basierende Methode zur Ableitung von Flexibilitätsklassen vor.