Simulation-based tool to analyse the effect of order acceptance policy in a make-to-order manufacturing system

Abstract

Order acceptance decision is an interface between the customer relationship management and the production planning activities of the manufacturing system. The decision of accept/reject an order is a critical decision in an uncertain market environment. This paper proposes an order acceptance policy in a market with three order profit classes and volume uncertainty. The policy proposed is integrated with production planning activity; the policy is used to take the decision of accept/rejection using the information provided by the production planning model. A simulation environment based on an open source tool JAVA has been developed to test the proposed methodology in several environment conditions. The simulation results show the robustness of the proposed approach and provide the information to set the threshold value of the proposed approach.