Purpose: The theory of constraints (TOC) methodology and its drum-buffer-rope (DBR) production planning and control system are well suited to managing production plants in complex environments. The objective of this study was to design an evolution of the systematic process for implementing the...

In today's volatile business environment, manufacturers often face the challenge of making sales and production decisions despite unstable market demand. Companies must strategically determine which customer orders to fulfill or which products to stock under limited resources. This study...

We study a pure assemble-to-order system subject to multiple demand classes where customer orders arrive according to a compound Poisson process. The finished product is assembled from m different components that are produced on m distinct production facilities in a make-to-stock fashion. We...

We review the recent academic literature on Assemble-to-Order (ATO) systems, which stock inventory of components that are then assembled into final products upon receipt of customer demand. The key feature of such systems, component commonality (i.e., products may share common components),...

Problem definition: We introduce and formalize a concept termed as conditional leadtime flexibility (CLF), which refers to the industry practice where a manufacturer requests its upstream suppliers to dynamically adjust the leadtimes. We consider an assemble-to-order (ATO) manufacturer's...

Purpose: This study is focused on integrating a strategic perspective for bottleneck selection and exploitation according to the DBR methodology. The researchers developed a systematic process of four steps for the implementation of the first two steps of TOC-DBR in Make-to-Order production...

Purpose: Although Heijunka (production levelling or smoothing) is a lean tool designed to balance changing customer needs and production efficiency, this study aims to analyze the impact of Heijunka and identify various factors which can generally affect its successful implementation....

We consider continuous-review assemble-to-order (ATO) systems with a general bill of materials (BOM) and general leadtimes. ATO systems have the advantage of mass customization and are widely adopted in practice. However, characterizing the optimal inventory policy is notoriously challenging and...

We analyze a W-configuration assemble-to-order system with random lead times, random arrival of demand, and lost sales, in continuous time. Specifically, we assume exponentially distributed production and demand inter-arrival times. We formulate the problem as an infinite-horizon Markov decision...

Purpose: Contract manufacturing has established itself as a cornerstone of manufacturing practices across industries. The high degree of external value creation, operational interfaces, relational dynamics, and knowledge exchange coordination require demand-oriented management of contract...

Introduction to contract manufacturing relationships -- Fundamentals of managing contract manufacturing relationships -- Research access to management of contract manufacturing relationships -- Empirical findings on the management of contract manufacturing relationships 92 -- Findings on the...

How should a firm make joint production and replenishment decisions in a make-to-order setting where it can use either of two kinds of raw materials (or their mixture) to produce an end product using a shared production line with stochastic capacity? The problem is motivated by the practice of...

We use de-identified data from California personal income tax returns to measure the frequency and nature of independent contracting and self-employment work in California. We identify this work by the presence of a Schedule C on the tax return and/or the receipt of a Form 1099 information...