As competition becomes global and the environment in which companies operate is becoming more complex, the design and managing of international manufacturing networks has become crucial. Therefore, it is important to do an analysis of the necessary decisions any company must make, such as facilities location, supply strategy, facility strategy role, etc., in order to accomplish the internationa...

The manufacturing industry constantly strive to develop the competencies of their expert production engineers in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Research shows that the absorptive capacity of a firm is central in order to reach such a goal. The absorptive capacity of a firm is their ability to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to...

Abstract: The intensive deployment of Information Technology in manufacturing systems gives manufacturers an opportunity to promote make-to-order business models and mass customization of products. Facing this wide range of customer needs requires manufacturing control systems to be adaptable to variable demands in terms of product specifications or intrinsic system changes. To this end, the co...

The objective in traditional scheduling is usually time based. Minimizing the makespan, total flow times, total tardi costs, etc. are instances of these objectives. In manufacturing, processing each job entails a cost paying and price receiving. Thus, the objective should include some notion of managing the flow of cash. We have defined two new objectives: maximization of average and minimum av...

Companies must develop and maintain a high degree of coherence among competitive priorities, order-winning criteria, and improvement activities due to the competitive market and customer pressures. This paper presents findings of an empirical survey on manufacturing strategies implementation in new industrialized countries (NICs). Data were obtained from 68 and 54 automotive manufacturing compa...

This paper introduces a systematic and quantitative approach for assessing manufacturing responsiveness at the operational or tactical level in a manufacturing business. In particular the paper presents a methodology for investigating response capabilities across the entire order fulfilment cycle, highlights specific research issues and presents industrial case study results. Previous work carr...

The PSS (pentaprism scanning system) has advantages of simple structure, needless of reference flat, be able of on-site testing, etc, it plays an important role in large flat reflective mirror’s manufacturing, especially the high accuracy testing of low order aberrations. The PSS system measures directly the slope information of the tested flat surface. Aimed at the unique requirement of M3MP, ...

This paper focuses on data modeling for traceability of material/work flow in information layer of manufacturing control system. The model is able to trace all associated data throughout the product manufacturing from order to final product. Dynamic data processing of Quality and Purchase activities are considered in data modeling as well as Order and Operation base on lots particulars. The mod...

In this investigation a DoE (Design of Experiments) analysis of distortion for a typical manufacturing process of pre-straightened, cold drawn and induction hardened AISI 1045 cylindrical steel bars was carried out. A careful characterization of the material, including residual stress states and geometrical changes, was done for the different manufacturing steps. In order to identify effects an...

This paper studies the specific Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) capabilities needed for the transformation of Engineered to Order (ETO) manufacturing towards Configure to Order business strategy. The material for the research comes from a project conducted with public private partnership. The four industrial companies that we studied engineer and/or manufacture highly customized products in ...