Integrated BOM and routing generator for variety synchronization in assembly‐to‐order production

Abstract

PurposeTraditional production management systems are often designed to support manufacturing based on a limited number of product variants. With the emerging trend of producing customized products to meet diverse customer needs, the number of product variants increases exponentially in mass customization. In a situation of assembly‐to‐order production, production planning and control involve not only product variety, but also process variety. It is imperative to synchronize product and process variety in a coherent manner.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses integrated product and production data management for assembly‐to‐order production. An integrated BOM and routing generator is proposed for the purpose of unifying BOM and assembly‐planning data in order to accommodate a wide range of product variability and production variations.FindingsAn integrated BOM and routing generator excels in variety synchronization for assembly‐to‐order production planning.Research limitations/implicationsVariety synchronization opens many opportunities for research into mass customization production. It is important to deal with not only the results of high variety production but also the causes of process variations.Practical implicationsThe proposed methodology is applicable to manage high variety production like mass customization.Originality/valueThe paper proposes the variety synchronization issue in mass customization. An object‐oriented methodology is applied to manage variety of BOMs and variety of routings.