Flexible machine layout design for dynamic and uncertain production environments

Yang, Taho; Peters, Brett A.

doi:10.1016/s0377-2217(97)00220-8

Cited by 102 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This includes developing new facilities or changing the sequence of production processes to make changes of suppliers easily accommodated. For example, a firm may adopt a production facility that can process various types of materials in its production system instead of maintaining a facility that is limited to a specific material [41]. In addition, a firm may change its production process such that a material-specific process is placed later in its process such that impact of materials changes is minimized.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multinational Firm’s Production Decisions under Overlapping Free Trade Agreements: Rule of Origin Requirements and Environmental Regulation

2016

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Abstract:In this paper, we study the impact of the rule of origin (ROO) requirements accompanied by free trade agreements (FTAs), which specify the minimum portion of supplies that should satisfy the origin requirement, on a multinational firm's production decisions. We consider a multinational firm who exports its product to multiple countries and analyze its production decision in the presence of multiple free trading agreements (FTAs). The ROO requirements in FTAs not only refer to the origin of supplies but are also involved with an environmental regulation of a country of the supplies. As such, meeting multiple ROO requirements can be costly since it may be involved with an adjustment of production facility and suppliers according to different environmental standards. We investigate a multinational firm's choice of the ROO level in its production decision under multiple FTAs. It is well known that, in the presence of overlapping FTAs, the firm may strategically choose not to comply with the minimum ROO requirements in the FTAs. Instead, the firm may choose to comply with an ROO level that is higher than required, or pay the tariff instead without enjoying tariff exemption by the FTA in the new country. Such unintended outcomes in the FTAs are called the Spaghetti Bowl Effect. We characterize and quantify two types of such Spaghetti Bowl Effects with the optimal production decisions of a multinational firm under multiple ROO requirements and derive policy implications.

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Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multinational Firm’s Production Decisions under Overlapping Free Trade Agreements: Rule of Origin Requirements and Environmental Regulation

2016

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“…While grouping resources based on their functionality allows for some economies of scale and simplicity in workload allocation, it makes the layout vulnerable to changes in the product mix and/or routings. When they occur, these changes often result in a costly relayout of the plant and/or an expensive redesign of the material handling system [42,49,74,82].…”

Section: Current Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A method for developing "flexible" layouts is presented in [82]. The flexible layout is based on the notion that layouts neither remain static for multiple production planning periods nor do they change during every period.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The question for the designer is not only how to change the layout, but also when to do so. Assuming the flow matrices as well as their probability of occurrence is known for multiple planning periods, the block of periods for which a layout is to remain static is first determined [82]. The layout problem for each block of periods is then solved and results combined to generate a layout plan for multiple production periods.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is an emerging consensus that existing layout configurations do not meet the needs of the multi-product enterprise [4,13,37,42,58,59,61,79,82] and that there is a need for a new generation of factory layouts that are more flexible, modular, and more easily reconfigurable. Flexibility, modularity, and reconfigurability could save factories the need to redesign their layouts each time their production requirements change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Next Generation Factory Layouts: Research Challenges and Recent Progress

2002

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There is an emerging consensus that existing layout configurations do not meet the needs of the multi-product enterprise and that there is a need for a new generation of factory layouts that are more flexible, modular, and more easily reconfigurable. In this article, we offer a review of state of the art in the area of design of factory layouts for dynamic environments. We report on emerging efforts in both academia and industry in developing alternative layout configurations, new performance metrics, and solution methods for designing the "next generation" of factory layouts. In particular, we focus on describing efforts by the Consortium on Next Generation Factory Layouts (NGFL) to address some of these challenges. The consortium, supported by the National Science Foundation, involves multiple universities and several manufacturing companies. The goal of the consortium is to explore alternative layout configurations and alternative performance metrics for designing flexible and reconfigurable factories.1

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