Study of control actions on a manufacturing system subject to a dynamic environment created by customers, suppliers and competitors

Abstract

The existence of multiple, overlapping manufacturing philosophies creates confusion among manufacturing system managers who seek to better control the performance of the manufacturing system when responding to changes in the external elements such as suppliers, customers and competitors. Given the scenario where a set of random and difficult to predict external influences may change and impact the performance metrics of the system, a manager is often unable to pick most cost effective control actions to mitigate or exploit the effects of the influences. The control action is an investment to recover (mitigate/exploit) the effect of external influence(s) and to improve system performance.

This research study addresses the managerial actions needed to select the control actions in the face of individual and grouped external influences acting on a system's performance metrics. Based on preliminary findings, the transient response characteristics of selected performance metrics were able to provide better understanding of the value of the control actions. Using the performance metrics response and a methodology proposed in this study to select control actions, a manager could estimate the performance of the control action(s) at the different intensity levels of the external influences. This study connects the cost impact of the changes in external influences to the control action(s) investment cost using net present value.