Abstract
Interest in smart factories and smart supply chains has been increasing, and researchers have emphasized the importance and the effects of advanced technologies such as 3D printers, the Internet of Things, and cloud services. This paper considers an innovation in dynamic supply-chain design and operations: connected smart factories that share interchangeable processes through a cloud-based system for personalized production. In the system, customers are able to upload a product design file, an optimal supply chain design and operations plan are then determined based on the available resources in the network of smart factories. The concept of smart supply chains is discussed and six types of flexibilities are identified, namely: design flexibility, product flexibility, process flexibility, supply chain flexibility, collaboration flexibility, and strategic flexibility. Focusing on supply chain flexibility, a general planning framework and various optimization models for dynamic supply chain design and operations plan are proposed. Further, numerical experiments are conducted to analyze fixed, production, and transportation costs for various scenarios. The results demonstrate the extent of the dynamic supply chain design and operations problem, and the large variation in transportation cost.
Highlights
In the era of mass production, manufacturing companies have emphasized the efficiency of processes such as procurement, production, and logistics, in order to minimize the cost of over- and under-stocking
This paper focuses on the flexibility and dynamics required to make customized products, which could be achieved by employing new information and communication technology new (ICT) such as sensors, 3D-printers, cyber-physical system (CPS), and Internet of Things (IoT)
We investigated a smart supply chain with additive manufacturing that enables connected smart factories to communicate with each other in real time, to share data, and to make optimal decisions to support consumers through the cloud
Summary
In the era of mass production, manufacturing companies have emphasized the efficiency of processes such as procurement, production, and logistics, in order to minimize the cost of over- and under-stocking. As the importance of personalized customer needs increases and the product life cycle became shorter, more companies are focusing upon customized products and flexibility. The manufacturing system that provides customized products has been discussed and implemented. A manufacturing paradigm of mass customization has been in place since the late 1980s. Even though there has been controversy over the level of individualization [1], mass customization has been implemented by several important concepts, including product family architecture, reconfigurable manufacturing system, and delaying differentiation [3]. We are entering a new era, which demands a new manufacturing paradigm, focusing on highly customized
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