In the contemporary business environment, to adhere to the need of the customers, caused the shift from mass production to mass-customization. This necessitates the supply chain (SC) to be effective flexible. The purpose of this paper is to seek flexibility through adoption of family- * Corresponding Author, Email: navinkumardev@yahoo.com Tel. No. 09412425551 2 based dispatching rules under the influence of inventory system implemented at downstream echelons of an industrial supply chain network. We compared the family-based dispatching rules in existing literature under the purview of inventory system and information sharing within a supply chain network. The dispatching rules are compared for Average Flow Time performance, which is averaged over the three product families. The performance is measured using extensive discrete event simulation process. Given the various inventory related operational factors at downstream echelons, the present paper highlights the importance of strategically adopting appropriate family-based dispatching rule at the manufacturing end. In the environment of mass customization, it becomes imperative to adopt the family-based dispatching rule from the system wide SC perspective. This warrants the application of intra as well as inter-echelon information coordination. The holonic paradigm emerges in this research stream, amidst the holistic approach and the vital systemic approach. The present research shows its novelty in triplet. Firstly, it provides leverage to manager to strategically adopting a dispatching rule from the inventory system perspective. Secondly, the findings provide direction for the attenuation of adverse impact accruing from demand amplification (Bullwhip effect) in the form of inventory levels by appropriately adopting family-based dispatching rule. Thirdly, the information environment is conceptualized under the paradigm of Koestler's holonic theory.
IntroductionIn the contemporary business environment, to adhere to the need of the customers, whose role has changed from a consumer to prosumer, that is, the saturation of markets with standardized products have pushed the customer towards the search for higher levels of differentiation and personalization of products. This behavior of customer has lead to an environment where most manufacturing companies shift from mass production to mass-customization (Dominici, 2008). Further, the manufacturing companies have realized that their performance with specific goals cannot be met adequately if operated in isolation. The spread of IT technology made it possible for the firms to seamlessly access the knowledge base, communicate, and negotiate with other echelon, which are autonomous with specific goals and resources. The ability to respond to customer orders in a timely fashion can provide a critical competitive advantage. These challenges warrant the needs for agility that are able to: a) suitably react to the market environment's instability; b) coordinate production system through the adoption of IT technologies; ...