Sophie D’Amours

A network approach to operate agile manufacturing systems

Abstract This paper presents and illustrates a strategic framework for designing and operating agile networked manufacturing systems. This framework allows to collaboratively plan, control and manage day-to-day operations and contingencies in a dynamic environment. The first section summarizes the NetMan organizational and collaboration strategy. It consists of a dynamic business method to organize and operate manufacturing activities through the configuration, activation and operation of a distributed network of inter-dependent and responsible manufacturing centers. Next, the concepts underlying this strategic framework as well as the technical implications of such an approach, are illustrated, using a detailed case study inspired by a motorcoach industrial partner.

Coordination and control in distributed and agent-based manufacturing systems

This paper addresses two fundamental issues inherent to every manufacturing system. These issues concern the coordination and control of manufacturing activities. In doing so, many aspects are reviewed and analysed. First, the main distributed manufacturing paradigms are briefly introduced. Next, the various forms of interdependence that commonly constrain manufacturing activities are reviewed, as well as the coordination mechanisms used to manage them. Then, after analysing different approaches developed to address coordination and control of manufacturing activities in distributed and agent-based manufacturing systems, this paper highlights the limits of the existing classification schemes for coordination mechanisms and provides a new scheme that extends beyond those previously reviewed in order to take into account recent advances. The studied distributed manufacturing paradigms are finally compared in terms of coordination and control.

Furniture supply chain tactical planning optimization using a time decomposition approach

We study the supply chain tactical planning problem of an integrated furniture company located in the Province of Quebec, Canada. The paper presents a mathematical model for tactical planning of a subset of the supply chain. The decisions concern procurement, inventory, outsourcing and demand allocation policies. The goal is to define manufacturing and logistics policies that will allow the furniture company to have a competitive level of service at minimum cost. We consider planning horizon of 1 year and the time periods are based on weeks. We assume that customers demand is known and dynamic over the planning horizon. Supply chain planning is formulated as a large mixed integer programming model. We developed a heuristic using a time decomposition approach in order to obtain good solutions within reasonable time limit for large size problems. Computational results of the heuristic are reported. We also present the quantitative and qualitative results of the application of the mathematical model to a real industrial case.

Simulation and performance evaluation of partially and fully integrated sales and operations planning

This article presents rolling horizon simulation models and performance analysis of partially and fully integrated sales and operations planning (S&OP) against traditional decoupled planning in a multi-site make-to-order (MTO) based manufacturing supply chain. Three simulation models are developed illustrating, respectively, the fully integrated S&OP model, which integrates cross-functional planning of sales, production, distribution, and procurement centrally; the partially integrated S&OP model, in which the joint sales and production planning is performed centrally while distribution and procurement are planned separately at each site; and the decoupled planning model, in which sales planning is carried out centrally while production, distribution, and procurement are planned separately and locally. A solution procedure is provided for each model so that a more realistic planning process can be simulated. Performances of rolling horizon simulation models are evaluated against those of the fixed horizon deterministic models. The results demonstrate that while deterministic models are important for theoretical studies, they are insufficient for decision support and performance evaluations in a real business environment. A rolling horizon simulation model is required to provide more realistic solutions. The effects of demand uncertainties and forecast inaccuracies are incorporated in the evaluation. The study is carried out based on a real industrial case of a Canadian-based oriented strand board (OSB) manufacturing company.

Inter-firm collaborations and supply chain coordination: review of key elements and case study

Considering the effects of globalisation, the increase of production and energy costs, and the introduction of advanced technologies, companies need to change their way of doing business if they want to stay competitive. One way of doing this is to establish collaborations with suppliers, distributors and retailers, in order to exchange products efficiently and create value for customers. Nevertheless, the structure of the collaboration must be designed carefully and some coordination mechanisms must be implemented to support this way of doing business. In this article, we first analyse: why companies work together, how they should build their partnership, and which strategies they can implement to facilitate coordination of supply chain activities. We then report a case study of collaboration in the forest industry that shows the benefits of implementing coordination mechanisms as well as the necessity of using incentives to better share these benefits.

Collaborative order management in distributed manufacturing

The construction of a decision assistant tool for order management is outlined. Given a factory, which has a certain capacity to satisfy a certain number of orders, the objective is to assign each order to a specific period, thus maximizing the level of customers’ satisfaction. The optimization algorithm supports the sales department and forms an interface between customers’ needs and the production system. By combining advances in information technology and optimization technology, a method is presented based on collaborative planning techniques that optimizes customer satisfaction as well as resource utilization. For this purpose, an algorithm was developed based on an integer program model. The tool was implemented using the Java programming environment and Cplex optimization software. The proposed model takes the form of an agent, evolving within a multi-agent system. The proposed algorithm is compared with the greedy heuristic used by the world-class motorcoach manufacturer for which this research was conducted. Computational results show that the agent-based method proposed outperformed a heuristic method currently used in industry.

Operations Research challenges in forestry: 33 open problems

Forestry has contributed many problems to the Operations Research (OR) community. At the same time, OR has developed many models and solution methods for use in forestry. In this article, we describe the current status of research on the application of OR methods to forestry and a number of research challenges or open questions that we believe will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners. The areas covered include strategic, tactical and operational planning, fire management, conservation and the use of OR to address environmental concerns. The paper also considers more general methodological areas that are important to forestry including uncertainty, multiple objectives and hierarchical planning.

An Agent Simulation Model for the Quebec Forest Supply Chain

A supply chain is a network of companies producing and distributing products to end-consumers. The Quebec Wood Supply Game (QWSG) is a board game designed to teach supply chain dynamics. The QWSG provides the agent model for every company in our simulation. The goal of this paper is to introduce this simulation model. For this purpose, we first outline the QWSG, and then describe with mathematical equations each company in our simulation. Finally, three examples illustrate the use of our simulation to study collaboration in supply chains. More precisely, we study incentives for collaboration at both the supply chain and company level.

Business Models for Collaborative Planning in Transportation: an Application to Wood Products

Transportation is an important part of the wood fibre flow chain in forestry. There are often several forest companies operating in the same region and coordination between two or more companies is however rare. Lately, the interest in collaborative transportation planning to support co-ordination has risen since important potential savings have been identified. Even though substantial savings can be realized, it seems that companies’ willingness to collaborate is tightly linked to a business model driven by one or many leaders. In this paper, we study a specific business model where one company leads the development of the coalition. The impact of different behaviours of the leading company (i.e. altruistic, opportunistic) is illustrated using an industrial case study of eight forest companies.

Agent-based experimental investigations of the robustness of tactical planning and control policies in a softwood lumber supply chain

This article investigates the robustness of different tactical planning and control policies for a softwood supply chain using an agent-based environment that simulates a distributed advanced planning and scheduling system and its corresponding supply chain operations. Simulations were modelled using a novel agent-based methodology combined with a robust experimental design approach and an industrial data set obtained from two companies in Eastern Canada. Experimental results provide insights about the dynamic relations among factors related to control levels, planning methods and planning horizon lengths. Results indicate that supply chain control levels play a relevant role in defining robust service levels, while the planning horizon and the planning method have lower impact in this context. In addition, from the supply chain inventory level point of view, we verified that the three investigated tactical rules have to be configured together if one desires to maximise their contribution for a robust supply chain system capable of coping with uncertainties from the business environment. When these rules are evaluated individually, it is not possible to make the most of their potential due to interactions between them. The article concludes by proposing an optimum robust configuration of the tactical rules to minimise the impact of supply chain uncertainties.