A pragmatic approach for optimal selection of plant-specific process plans in a virtual enterprise

Abstract

With the globalization of economic markets and the individuality of market demands, virtual enterprise is becoming an increasingly important organization since it can respond rapidly to market changes and make resource sharing more efficient among manufacturing partners. In this environment, potential partners may be dispersed geographically and possess different core competencies. Thus, how to select a set of plant-specific process plans capable of optimally responding to a given market opportunity has become a challenging research topic. This paper proposes a comprehensive cost function and establishes its mathematical formulation. The comprehensive cost function considers not only direct-processing cost, but also indirect-processing cost (transportation cost and time-factor cost including both earliness and tardiness). Based on the cost function, a pragmatic approach is presented for optimal plant–process combination selection in a virtual enterprise. This approach is composed of three stages: qualitative pre-qualification, quantitative evaluation and comprehensive examination. An example is implemented to illustrate these three stages. Compared with some traditional approaches in normal engineering activities, this approach could be expected to contribute more efficiently to reducing manufacturing cost, improving product quality, and shortening lead-time.

Keywords:

• virtual organization
• process planning
• partner selection
• optimization

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank anonymous referees and the co-editor for their helpful comments and suggestions.

DING-ZHONG FENG is a Professor of both Industrial Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He is also an Expert of Industrial Engineering in Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering. Since December 2001, he has been a visiting Professor of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering at Ashikaga Institute of Technology, Japan. His research and teaching interests are in production/inventory systems modelling and manufacturing strategy, supply-chain management with emphasis on production planning and control, and engineering mechanics with emphasis on engineering reliability assessment. He has published research articles in International Journal of Fracture, International Journal of Pressure Vessels & Piping, an International Journal: Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Journal of Statistics & Management Systems, and other journals.

MITSUO YAMASHIRO received the BS (1973) and MS (1975) from Kogakuin University in Mechanical Engineering and PhD (1991) from Keio University in Powder Technology. He is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Information Systems Engineering at Ashikaga Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the theory and application of manufacturing systems engineering and powder technology. He is a member of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Japan Industrial Management Association, the Operations Research Society of Japan and the Society of Powder Technology, Japan.