Method for control of the make-to-order manufacturing system on the base of earning power assessment

Abstract

A key requirement for the make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing companies to remain competitive is the ability to assess incoming orders in terms of performance and to determine the best orders that they should accept. In this paper, we propose a method to control the entire production process, from customer enquiry up to product delivery, for the MTO manufacturing systems. In practice, decisions on order acceptance and on production planning are often made separately. Sales department is responsible for accepting orders, while the production department is in charge of production planning for implementation of accepted orders. The method proposed in this paper aims to facilitate the connection between the two departments by an integrated control based on the earning power evaluation. The main problems for a MTO manufacturing system manager, i.e. those related to order acceptance and machine control, are solved by the new control method. The solutions are highlighted by presenting the conceptual flowchart of the proposed method, followed by a case study, where three time and cost modeling techniques—namely analytical, neural, and k-NN regression techniques—are applied. The models of earning power at operation, job, and order level are further built and analyzed. The results show that the method could lead to a significant increase of the manufacturing system performance.