Smart manufacturing operating systems considering parts utilization for engineer-to-order production with make-to-stock parts

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution is expected to be powered by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields including robotics and artificial intelligence. Consequently, companies and countries are exploring smart, autonomous factories that can handle various customer requirements. However, 99.5% of Japanese manufacturers are small and medium-sized enterprises. Most of them lack digital connections even among internal departments, and their average labor productivity is only 43% that of large manufacturers. To realize a smart factory that can provide customized products over tight deadlines with high productivity, this study focuses on small and medium-sized engineer-to-order firms that fabricate parts before orders for final products are placed. Inventories suffering from both a lack and excess of parts are a major issue for such firms. To ensure such firms operate efficiently, we propose a novel production operating system that can link different types of information obtained by the sales, production, and procurement departments. Parts preparation is conducted by using future inquiry information, and the available parts are used through a predetermined order-receiving plan. The order-receiving plan is developed as an integer linear programming problem with constraints of parts inventory and short-term inquiry information. The efficacy of the proposed operating system in both increasing orders and reducing parts inventory is validated. We believe that our findings can significantly aid in the realization of future smart factories.