Measuring complexity as an aid to developing operational strategy

One of the difficulties in developing a coherent operational strategy is to know how the various elements of a manufacturing system interact and to assess the relevant importance of each. Looks at the manufacturing systems and how complex they are. A measure which calculates the systems′ complexity and the contribution from each operational source has been developed. It thus provides a tool that can assist in a strategy development exercise by quantifying the problem areas on a common basis. The approach has been used at three manufacturing sites. The resulting analysis allowed the local management, in each case, to identify the key areas of weakness, in both the short and medium term. As such it gave each of them a possible starting‐point from which to formulate an operational strategy.