WebATP: a Web-based flexible available-to-promise computation system

Abstract

Available-to-promise (ATP) is a quantity that can be used to determine whether a firm can fill customer orders by the requested date. This paper describes a Web-based flexible ATP computation system (WebATP) which provides enhanced flexibility during ATP computation. A dynamic bill-of-material (BOM) is used to simplify the BOM exploding process which makes ATP computation less expensive. Case study shows that WebATP can help firms to understand their capability for filling customer demands better. Being Web enabled, WebATP can be accessed from any geographical locations and from any computer platform. It can also be used as a ‘what-if ’ scenario planning tool.

Keywords:

• Web
• available-to-promise
• dynamic BOM
• production planning

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the research grant from Singapore–MIT Alliance (SMA) and Nanyang Technological University. The authors thank anonymous referees for their valuable comments.

MOHUA XIONG holds a Doctor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology of China in 1996. He is currently a Research Fellow of the Singapore–MIT Alliance (SMA) programme on Innovation in Manufacturing Systems and Technology (IMST) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His main research interests and expertise reside in the fields of production planning and operation management, e-business and supply chain management. At present, he is working on the development of theories and methods for managing customer enquiries at the customer enquiry stage for SMEs.

SHU BENG TOR is the Head of Manufacturing Engineering Division, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, NTU. He is also the Director of the Design Research Centre and Director of the Strategic Research Programme: Product Design and Realization. He was the Chairman of the Strategic Research Area on Engineering Design and Modelling. He was involved in research and development of the solid modelling and drafting system while undertaking his PhD in England. After graduation, he joined Hewlett Packard Asia as regional CAD/CAM specialist, providing technical support and expertise on the use of CAD/CAM technology to both internal and external customers. In the last of his five years at Hewlett Packard, he was the productivity manager of the Research and Development Laboratory looking into ways of improving product life cycle using CAD/CAM technology. He is an SMA fellow and the course coordinator of SMA program on IMST.

LI PHENG KHOO is a Professor in the School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1978 and earned his MSc in Industrial Engineering from the National University of Singapore and PhD from the University of Wales respectively. Prior to joining NTU in 1984, he was engaged in design, maintenance and manufacturing work in Japan as well as in local industries. His teaching and research interests are in artificial intelligence, optimization, Internet-based solutions for design and manufacturing, design for manufacture and assembly, quality engineering and virtual environment. Dr Khoo is currently the Head of the Mechatronics and Design Division. He is an active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME).