Supply chain resilience is massively gaining importance for manufacturing companies in times of severe disruption due to crises. Supplier selection is a key aspect of building a resilient supply chain. Currently, however, there is no holistic method for supplier selection that takes resilience into account. This paper therefore presents a research project that aims to develop an assessment measure for resilience in the context of supplier selection. The aim is to consider the existing resilience from the supplier company’s perspective and the required resilience from the selecting company's perspective.
Logistics, Supplier Selection, Resilience, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management
The realization of a planned layout concept represents a complex subtask within factory planning. In particular, the temporal arrangement of the necessary relocation steps, taking into account existing restrictions, is usually carried out manually according to the current state of the art. Therefore, an easy-to-use method for planning a factory move for reorganization projects was developed in a research project, which can be applied by companies in a practical context.
factory planning, removal planning, project scheduling, optimization, operations research
The internal supply chain in companies includes all areas from procurement to shipping. It is characterised by a heterogeneous process landscape, often accompanied by repetitive, administrative tasks. These are usually associated with a high level of manual effort and a high potential for errors. An example of this is the manual entry of delivery notes into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Even incremental improvements already help SMEs enormously to cope with the heterogeneity of processes in the internal supply chain. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a promising approach to this. RPA offers the potential to automate administrative processes in internal supply chain that previously did not seem automatable.
Logistik, innerbetriebliche Lieferkette, robotic process automation, RPA
The reorganization of factory objects in the restructuring of existing factories is associated with numerous challenges. This article provides an overview of possible conflicting goals and key factors influencing the success of the project.
Factories are subject to continuous change. Ever shorter development cycles in the manufacture of different products lead to an increased need for restructuring of affected manufacturing structures. In the context of factory planning projects, the focus is on the design of the layout under the influence of individual framework conditions. The relocation steps necessary for realization are usually determined only after the layout design has been completed. However, the planning and preparation of the relocation represents an independent project task with regard to the objectives and complexity. Within the scope of the research project on the "Development of a Method for the Optimal Planning of the Relocation of Factory Objects in the Course of the Realization of a New Factory Layout" (OptiFaU), fundamental interrelationships in the planning and execution of factory relocations are investigated and discussed with regard to their significance for the success of the project. The aim of the project is to provide planning persons (e.g. relocation service providers or factory planners) with a possibility to evaluate relocation alternatives.
relocation planning, project planning, scheduling, factory planning, reorganization
How can companies get the most out of their manufacturing and be economically successful even in a high-wage location? A Manufacturing Execution System – a process-oriented level of a multi-layer production management system – can help. This enables companies to optimize their production planning and control.
A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently still do without this support because the effort required to introduce such a system appears too great. One way to reduce the effort involved is to prepare comprehensively for the MES introduction. An "MES Readiness Check" should provide support for this preparation. It reveals the demands that this introduction phase places on companies. The company can check whether it meets the necessary requirements.
Manufacturing Execution System, MES, Digitalization
During the assembly of large-scale products, disruptions often occur. To reduce these disruptions, a straightforward approach to their systematic processing is needed. This should automatically identify similar disruptions and independently suggest sensible corrective measures. For this, the disruptions are first collected and characterized and a model for practical information flows is created. Then, in a multi-stage similarity search, similar disruptions are identified, and suitable corrective measures are derived.
Disruption management, single and small batch assembly, large scale products, similarity search
Since free?aces for new buildings are limited or not available at all, redensification is a promising approach to generate new living space. This can be both the extension of existing buildings by further storeys and the vertical extension or change of use of other building structures. Modular house construction takes this objective into account because a large part of the added value is generated before construction begins. Its advantages are now set against the logistical challenges of post-densification.
Modular house construction, post-densification, construction sites, production planning and control
Software for an Automated Multidimensional Factory Layout Optimisation: Layout planning is a complex planning task in the context of factory planning, which up to now has usually needed to be carried out manually. Although many optimisation methods for the underlying problem have been developed in the past, they were only applicable to a small group of experts, mostly from universities. Therefore, an easy-touse software for layout planning was developed in a research project to provide companies with access to these optimisation methods.
Factory planning, facility layout planning, optimization, operations research, software
Demographic change and the associated population growth in large cities make it increasingly difficult to create affordable housing. There is also a lack of available building land for potential new buildings. One approach to alleviate the housing shortage in large cities is modular building post-compaction. In this context, prevailing framework conditions are characterized by limited available space, a complex infrastructure or the consideration of the burden on residents. The lack of description models for associated construction sites, as well as for the organisation and control of necessary processes, still stand in the way of their widespread use. This refers in particular to the interactions of the parameters mentioned and their effect on the logistic performance of such a construction site. This article therefore describes a method for the organization and control of construction site processes in the modular building post-compaction with the aim to be able to plan and carry out such con-struction projects efficiently and with little effort. The users shall be provided with a process description of the planning of construction site equipment and process flow, as well as with a decision support in case of disturbances of the process in the operative operation.
urbanization, demographic change, construction sites, production planning and control
In current approaches to factory planning, the influences of transport systems are not taken into account in the layout planning process. Means of transport selection and transportation network planning takes place downstream of layout planning. The effects of transport system selection on the design of the factory layout are therefore only considered at the end of the factory planning process. The selection of certain transportation systems can therefore require extensive adjustments to the layout. This article describes a concept for an expert system that integrates transportation network planning into the layout planning process in addition to transportation system selection. The expert system should interpret the expert knowledge for the selection of transport systems on the basis of fuzzy logic and generate the later factory layout, as well as the transport networks, automatically on the basis of defined input data.
factory planning, layout planning, transport systems, fuzzy logic
Resource depletion and climate change are the main drivers for the rapid change of power generation structures. The energy transformation is causing an increase in energy prices for manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Within the last decade energy prices in Germany have doubled and are expected to grow even further . Metal processing SMEs are already attributing 4.5 percent of their gross production value to electricity costs. The paper shows the possible savings potential of the use of inventory levels as energy storage and provides approaches to an efficient solution of the associated optimization problems.
production program planning, energy costs, inventory level, energy storage
Currently used methods for factory layout planning are limited in their evaluation methods. Factory evaluation is either qualitative or quantitative, but limited to a few objectives. These deficits were overcome by the development of a quantitative, multidimensional ad hoc factory evaluation method. On this basis, it is now possible to develop a method for factory layout planning that reduces the planning effort and significantly increases the quality of the solution.
facility layout planning, factory planning, operations research, mathematical modelling
Work-related illnesses and their results may pose a threat to businesses' productivity. This may as well affect businesses' competitiveness for the worse. A workplace designed by methods of ergonomic workplace-design may counter some of the caused issues. But companies often lack knowledge or fear required financial resources to restructure workplaces. With this article technical requirements to an automated ergonomics assesment system are described.
ergonomics, evaluation, optimization, workplace design
The volatility of electricity prices is steadily increasing due to the growing expansion of renewable energies. This is particularly observable at the electricity exchange. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector can save energy costs due to these fluctuations through targeted load management methods. To increase this potential, SMEs need to use smart meters and obtain their electricity at pricest as close to those at the electricity exchange as possible.
power procurement, electricity exchange, load management, electricity costs
The forecast of sales volumes represents a challenge for the production planning. Above all, sales forecasts that are difficult to predict, such as those caused by promotions, are obstructive. Often, additional information from macroeconomic indexes is not topical, the level of detail of products to be forecast too low and the forecast expenditure too high. Aim of a research project therefore is to develop a model based on search engine data to forecast sales volumes at product level. By the use of complementary application of search engine data to the sales forecast is expected that the forecast mistake can be reduced compared with conventional forecast models upon product level. In general it should be clarified whether and in which extend the logistical efficiency of an enterprise can be improved by search engine data based forecast of sales volumes in the production planning.
production planning, sales forecast, search engine data, forecast model
In production, product-based failure costs can be reduced by focusing the production factor „human“. Therefore, human performance fluctuations during the course of day have to be considered in the production planning and control. This paper presents an approach for quality-orientated flexible job shop scheduling, taking into account human performance fluctuations during the day.
production planning and control, performance curve, quality
Considering production planning and control, lot sizing is a very important task. Lot sizes are usually resorted to lot size dependent order and storage costs. However, models for lot sizes ignore the aspect of lot size dependent maintenance costs. For forging companies the tool wear has a great economic importance, because the tooling costs represents a major factor in production costs.
production planning and control, lot sizing, process stability
Disassembling of large-scale products (e. g. wind energy plants, crane and conveyor systems which are known as XXL-Products) becomes increasingly important, as the operating time is limited. The challenge is to optimize the positioning of the complex and expensive disassembling on the operation site on the one hand and the costly transportation of modules to the disassembling factories. For this reason the location and allocation problem will be pictured in a mathematical model within the research project “DemoNet”. This model supports companies to create a XXL-disassembly-network. The research hypothesis assumes: a disassembly under ecological, economical and logistical aspects constitutes the optimum. The extension of a location planning tool forms the basis of the mathematical optimization model for the disassembly of XXL-Products. For solving the problem a genetic algorithms will be used. The result helps companies to arrange disassembling networks for XXL-Products efficiently.
dismantling planing, dismantling networks, impact model
Increasingly rising electricity prices endanger the competitiveness of the German industry. If fluctuating electricity prices resulting from renewable energy are used, a reduction of production-related energy costs is possible. Therefore the capacity control opens a new field of action. In this paper, a backlog control is introduced, which selects the time of adjusting the capacity in response to energy prices.
time variable electricity prices, fluctuating energy consumptions, manufacturing control, capacity c
Increasing electricity price fluctuations through the augmented integration of renewable energies require dynamic tariff plans in order to conform the energy demand on the energy offer for achieving network stability. If time-variable electricity tariffs taking account into the specific needs of small and medium enterprises (SME) can be developed, energy costs can be reduced significantly by freedom degrees of an adapted manufacturing control.
energy costs, electricity tariff, manufacturing control, renewable energy
