1,721,144 research outputs found
Virtual Pooled Inventories for equipment-intensive industries. An implementation in a paper district
No full textInventory Pooling occurs when different actors share their inventories with the aim of reducing costs while improving performances. The paper-making industry requires large amounts of ready to install spares aimed at assuring high availability, but presents the drawback of excessive inventory costs. Pooling inventories, with the support of appropriate IT solutions, can be considered an effective strategy to improve availability while reducing the total costs. In the present work a real-life implementation within an important Italian paper-making district has been successfully carried out. Throughout the study the most recent theoretical models have been adapted after a methodical analysis that has been devoted to allow the identification and of the most significant issues and the building of a wide and solid agreement among the participants. Indeed, this required a thorough investigation, since the involved actors are generally competitors and only agree to pool inventories if this leads to increasing profits for themselves
An integrated approach to implement Project Management Information Systems within the Extended Enterprise
No full textProject Management Information Systems (PMIS) are software applications that help managers track projects from their conception to their execution. They provide them with pertinent information and collaborative tools. Currently, most businesses use disconnected instruments which are not designed for managing complex projects. Increases in complexity, both due to the extent of scope and the fact that the users who contribute to the decision making process are physically separated, have led to initiatives that deal with cooperation, teamwork and continuous improvement. This work presents an integrated approach to improve PMIS applicability within the Extended Enterprise. The study regards the definition and the building of a management framework where planning, scheduling, and communicating are made immediate and effective by the adoption of common standards, shared communication and appropriate software tools for the management of whole Supply Chains. The proposed approach has been successfully applied within the shipbuilding industry
SMED enhanced with 5-Whys ANalysis to improve setup reduction programs: the SWAN approach
No full textIn the present paper, a novel Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) set-up reduction approach, fully integrated with a 5-Whys Analysis, is presented. It permits to highlight not-optimized conditions from the changeover perspective, with the aim of reducing the effort and the cost of the SMED activity. Indeed, all set-up losses are investigated in a structural manner to identify their root causes and all the possible interactions, thus suggesting better—in terms of efficiency—interventions. In this way, the analyst is supported and facilitated during the definition of the actions required to reduce the set-up times. In particular, the implementation of the ‘whywhy analysis’ is supported and integrated with (i) a general schematization of the generic workstation and (ii) an operational worksheet that leads the analyst through the investigation of the machine and its set-up process. The proposed approach is applied to a real industrial context, and the outcomes of such application are presented in the provided case study
An Integer Linear Programming Approach to Maintenance Strategies Selection
No full textPurpose - The paper presents a RCM embedded integer linear programming approach (suited to the budget monetary resources allocation task) to the maintenance strategies mix selection for an industrial plant equipments.
Design/methodology/approach - The developed approach allows to determine the optimal maintenance strategies mix for a set of equipments in a more quantitative way than the classic RCM approach. The proposed model takes into account, for each potential failure determined using the FMECA and for each admissible strategy, the costs and the potential RPN reduction. Finally, an industrial case concerning an Italian paper-mill plant is reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach presented.
Findings - The paper finds that the application of the proposed approach allows to optimally allocate the budget monetary resources, determining which suitable maintenance practice apply to each failure, taking into account the costs of each strategy and the potential reduction of the RPN.
Practical implications - The proposed model permits to assign (during the budget monetary resources allocation task) to each failure the optimal strategy, among a set of suitable maintenance practices, considering the costs and the estimated RPN reduction.
Originality/value - The paper proposes a completely new RCM embedded approach to the maintenance strategies selection, in order to optimally allocate the budget monetary resources. This model overcomes the limits of the traditional RCM approach, taking into account quantitative aspects, i.e. the compatibility constraint between failures and policies, the maintenance strategies costs, and the RPN estimated reduction
Approximated closed-form minimum-cost solutions to the (S-1, S) policy with complete backordering
No full textIn this paper, we consider the continuous review (S – 1, S) policy with complete backordering, deterministic and constant lead-time, and with a Poissonian lead-time demand. Moreover, we take into account two different expressions of the total expected cost depending on the customer-service criterion adopted. First, we approximate the Poissonian lead-time demand with a well-suited Gaussian random variable. Although this system can be easily solved with a simple algorithmic approach, it is interesting to be aware of the direct analytical functional relationship between the optimal value of the decision variable and the parameters of the model. Hence, the second step consists in providing some approximated closed-form minimum-cost solutions for both cost models considered under a Gaussian lead-time demand. An extensive numerical study is finally shown to characterize the precision achieved by the approximations developed
Corrigendum to “Safety stock management in single vendor-single buyer problem under VMI with consignment stock agreement” [Int. J. Prod. Econ. 154 (2014) 16–31] (International Journal of Production Economics (2014) 154 (16–31), (S0925527314001224), (10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.04.007))
No full textA standard agreement for Vendor Managed Inventory
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to define the standard structure of a vendor managed inventory (VMI) agreement, which can be used as a guideline for the early definition of the agreement.
Design/methodology/approach – Starting from an industrial application of relevance, the information flow and the technical details, which are to be defined before the operation startup, are identified and discussed. These data are used as the key points for the definition of the basic frame of the agreement. A particular emphasis is given to the “Technical Specification” and the “Service Level Agreement” sections.
Findings – It is shown that a VMI agreement should be arranged into parts dealing with the generic and legal sides of the agreement, whereas the technical aspects and the relation-specific topics should be addressed in the annexes. This increases the flexibility of the agreement in that, as the VMI relationship evolves over time, changes will affect only the annexes leaving the main body of the agreement unaltered.
Practical implications – The proposed agreement has a flexible structure and can be easily adopted by the personnel involved to correctly define and implement VMI in several industrial fields.
Originality/value – By approaching VMI from a practical point of view, this paper identifies the main issues that must be covered in the agreement to fit the needs of both parties and to assure benefits on both sides
A study on the importance of selection rules within unbalanced MTO POLCA-controlled production systems
No full textThe present paper is aimed at investigating, through simulation, the behaviour of the POLCA method when a Make-to-Order (MTO) production system is highly unbalanced, in terms of both routings and times. In particular, the study is addressed to verify (i) the effective capability of the POLCA method to improve the uncontrolled system and (ii) the impact of how orders are processed at each workstation, to show that POLCA performance can be further improved in such circumstances by adopting an appropriate selection rule. Germs and Riezebos (2010) proved that POLCA is very effective in reducing the Total Throughput Time (TTT) with respect to the corresponding unconstrained production systems. Owing to this, it appears evident that POLCA represents a valuable and effective Make-to-Order (MTO) production control method. However, they only considered balanced systems, hence some observations must be carefully addressed. In fact, often, in real world applications, the systems to be controlled are designed to process units with very different routings, each with significantly different probability to occur
Computer-Aided Activity Planning (CAAP) in Large-Scale Projects With an Application in the Yachting Industry
No full textThe present paper provides the schema for an innovative and
modular computer-based approach to the planning of activities in largescale projects. Such projects are characterized by tens of thousands of tasks, which are consequently burdensome and difficult to plan manually. This is true to the point that in many shipyards only a low level of detail is used and poor planning is generally performed. The proposed approach is called Computer-Aided Activity Planning (CAAP), and an application in the yachting industry is shown to demonstrate its effectiveness. In particular, the so-called outfitting planning problem is faced. The CAAP system, taking into account the available shipyard resources and the knowledge on the building rules is able to automatically define, sequence, and schedule the activities of the whole outfitting process acting as a "planning configurator". Moreover, it allows the industry-specific knowledge to be stored, maintained and shared within the (extended) organization. Owing to these "building blocks", plans can be defined accurately and in a shorter time starting from pre-defined templates, with particular impact on lead times whenever variations to complex projects are needed. Finally, to verify the actual capabilities of the approach, the CAAP was implemented within a prototypical software called NautiCAAP
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