Robust order planning with planned orders for multi-variant series production in a production network

Abstract

Competitive production planning has to enable the realization of customer requirements regarding order configurations and lead times. In case short lead times are required, medium-term planning must take place when customer orders have not been received yet. In the short-term, robustness can be achieved by minimizing the impact of adapting the medium-term plan according to incoming customer orders. Thus, disturbances in the production network and its supply chain can be avoided.Therefore, an order planning approach is proposed providing continuity between medium-term and short-term planning as well as integrating the intra-organisational supply chain with its interface to the suppliers. The approach covers three planning tasks: the medium-term generation of planned orders anticipating customer orders, their medium-term assignment to production locations of the production network as well as the medium-to short-term assignment of incoming customer orders to planned orders.An industrial application is presented for an automobile manufacturer considering the documentation of its multi-variant products. Simulation is used to validate the robustness of the assignment of incoming customer orders to planned orders assigned in the production network. The managerial implication is that robustness of planning and a reliable confirmation of delivery times can be achieved by planning with orders in the medium-term and utilizing different types of reconfiguration flexibility in the short-term.