Lean thinking in the supply chain operations and its integration with customer order decoupling point and bottlenecks

The thesis study reveals that the position of bottleneck is a significant importance in supply chain process. The modern supply chain is characterized as having diverse products due to mass customization, dynamic production technology and ever changing customer demand. Usually customized supply chain process consists of an assemble to order (ATO) or make-to-order (MTO) type of operation. By controlling the supply constraints at upstream, a smooth material flow achieved at downstream. Effective management on operational constraint will results in speed up customer delivery. A throughout evaluation of demand constraints is necessary to gain the competitive benefits over the entire market. The study is based on a conceptual model, comprises of engineer to order (ETO), MTO, ATO and make to stock (MTS) separated by decoupling point. All these represent the particular process in supply chain. The important perspective of this study is that the constraints are allocated in particular part of supply chain, which will become the supply chain more versatile. This thesis study explains the use of detail capacity and material planning techniques in upstream, midstream and downstream of the customer order decoupling supply chain. A shifting bottleneck concept has been studied in a better way, in order to keep relative stability and reduce the complexity in production management. This thesis study tries to find out some possible factors that reduce the bottleneck shifting in supply chain. This research provides the guideline about the implementation of lean, leagile and agility in customized supply chain. Also key factors are discussed which are necessary to achieve these paradigms. Basically leagile is the mixture of both lean & agile strategies. Leagile is inclined towards sustaining the flow for mixed-model production. Its intent is to achieve the efficiencies in mass production, while producing a medium variety of products. The focus in leagile strategy is to gain effective control at shop floor planning, including capacity and material planning systems. Different relevant aspects of standardization and customization are considered through the production processes. In addition to this rate base, hybrid and time phase material planning techniques are sorted in different supply chain parts through multiple level of bill of material. Acknowledgement The completion of this master thesis has been a rewarding experience for me. The thesis was carried out at IEI department in Linköping University Sweden, this department is renowned for management and excellent research center in engineering. I would like to express enormous gratitude and …