2016 Volume 23 Issue 2 Pages 25-36
Manufacturing enterprises promote production of many models in small quantities in order to accommodate a variety of customer preferences. However, some customers cannot determine all of the customizable specifications before dispatching the production order. In this case, the preliminary processing for an order, called "Senko Tehai", is needed to prepare parts, materials or half-finished goods. Therefore, it is necessary that the system effectively manage the period of time in which customers can decide undetermined specifications to meet the promised delivery date. This study evaluates the behavior and the performance concerning the preliminary processing for an order while waiting for undetermined specifications to be decided after the order contract point. At first, the F-BOM is proposed as a production management system based on FBOM (Fundamental Bill of Manufacturing) for managing undetermined specifications. Furthermore, using a business process simulation, this study compares the F-BOM and a general production management system based on BOM (Bill of Materials), and the differences are evaluated concerning the process time and the wait time in queue of each operation in the processing of a customer’s order. From the results, it is shown that the process time and the waiting time are reduced by adopting F-BOM, and also important matters when using undetermined specifications are clarified through this examination.
