| dc.description.abstract | Purpose: The purpose of this research work is to propose a new type of Manufacturing Planning and Control system, depicting different levels of planning and control for ETO manufacturing environment.
Design: The research is based on the literature study on Engineer-to-Order (ETO), Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC), Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), and Last Planner System (LPS).
Findings: The findings are presented as follow: (1) The ETO characteristics are identified based on the products, processes and needs of suppliers and customers. (2) Six configurational aspects of MPC systems are identified, namely, logistic objectives, process, objects, functions, responsibilities and tools. (3) Main elements of S&OP, a tactical level planning in MPC systems, are identified: context, inputs, structure and processes. (4) Five requirements of MPC system in ETO manufacturing environment are identified: (a) capacity planning at customer enquiry stage (b) deal with the uncertainty in product specification (c) deal with customer-oriented non-repetitive production and variable routings (d) differentiation between project flow control and production unit control (e) manage the interface between production and sales. (5) After assessing various operational level planning and control methods, i.e., Material Requirement Planning, Theory of Constraints, Workload Control, Kanban, ConWIP, POLCA and Last Planner System, it was established that Last Planner System is able to meet most of the requirements of MPC system in ETO manufacturing environment. (6) Components of Last Planner Systems are studied in detail: Master Schedule, Phase schedule, look-ahead planning, weekly work planning. (7) Coherency of S&OP and LPS together in a MPC system was assessed based on six configurational aspects. (8) A new type of MPC systems focused on S&OP and LPS was proposed.
Research Limitations: (1) The proposed MPC system is applicable for ETO companies with low volume, highly customized products, therefore further adaptations are needed to apply it to different type of ETO company. (2) The proposed MPC system is based on study of ETO manufacturing environment, its use may not be appropriate with other type of manufacturing environments. (3) For detailed operational level planning and control, different methods could be used in combination and assessed for their applicability in ETO companies.
Value: (1) This research presents various elements of Sales and Operations Planning - a tactical level planning and control process in MPC system. (2) The thesis identifies different requirements of MPC system in ETO manufacturing environment. (3) This research assess the ability of various planning and control methods at operational level to fulfil the identified requirements of MPC system in ETO manufacturing environment. (4) The research proposed a new type of MPC system that is able to address those requirements.
Keywords: Engineer-to-Order, Manufacturing Planning and Control, Sales and Operations Planning, Last Planner System. | en |
