Fuzzy demand-driven material requirements planning: a comprehensive analysis of fuzzy logic implementation in DDMRP

ABSTRACT

Demand-Driven Material Requirements Planning (DDMRP) is a new method of inventory control designed to address the challenges of today's complex and volatile supply chain environment. DDMRP replaces traditional Material Requirements Planning (MRP) with a more agile and responsive approach that is based on a set of colour-coded buffers. DDMRP ensures that the right inventory is in the right place at the right time, enabling companies to respond quickly and effectively to changing customer demand. DDMRP requires the setting of various parameters, such as variability factor (VF) and lead time factor (LTF), which can have a significant impact on systems’ performance. Pre-assumed fixed values of DDMRP parameters are used in most of the existing studies. This may lead to either high stockout levels or excess inventory especially in environments involving high level of variability. In this study, we proposed a fuzzy logic-based approach which dynamically adjusts the values of VF and LTF parameters considering demand and lead time variability. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was investigated by comparing its performance with DDMRP based on several numerical experiments. The results showed that the proposed Fuzzy Demand-Driven Material Requirements Planning (FDDMRP) outperforms DDMRP in terms of backorder rate and total cost.

KEYWORDS:

• DDMRP
• fuzzy logic
• inventory management
• simulation
• buffer sizing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, O. E., upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ozlem Uzun Araz

Ozlem Uzun Araz is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Manisa Celal Bayar University. She holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in industrial engineering from Dokuz Eylul University. Her research interests are in the areas of manufacturing system design, reactive scheduling, fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence-based decision support systems, multi-criteria decision-making, and simulation. She has published in refereed international journals such as International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Expert Systems with Applications, and other journals.

Mehmet Ali Ilgin

Mehmet Ali Ilgin is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Manisa Celal Bayar University. He holds a PhD degree in industrial engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, and BS and MS degrees in industrial engineering from Dokuz Eylul University. His research interests are in the areas of environmentally conscious manufacturing, product recovery, remanufacturing, reverse logistics, spare parts inventory management, multi criteria decision making and simulation. He has published numerous research papers in refereed international journals such as Computers and Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Production Research, and International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. He coauthored two books published by CRC Press: ‘Remanufacturing Modeling and Analysis’ and ‘Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Applications in Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Product Recovery’.

Ozgur Eski

Ozgur Eski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. His research interests include intelligent manufacturing, warehouse management, and cellular manufacturing systems.

Ceyhun Araz

Ceyhun Araz obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from Dokuz Eylül University. He later earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management at the same institution. In 2010, he was appointed Assistant Professor and founded the Department of Industrial Engineering at Manisa Celal Bayar University. With over 40 academic publications and more than 1,500 international citations to his name, Araz was awarded the title of Associate Professor in Industrial Engineering in 2018. He has served as a board member for various industrial and technological companies and has been a member of the board at Norm Holding since 2021.