CAREER: Managing Product Variety in Production Systems

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This grant provides funding to study new practices in production, design and procurement aspects related to effectively managing product variety. Models related to three important aspects namely, (1) efficient delivery of variety to customers; (2) efficient procurement of equipment's and supplies; and (3) incorporating operational considerations in design of products and assembly systems will be analyzed. These models will provide an ability to capture product lines as a whole (rather than individual products) and the underlying complexities related to demand characteristics (uncertainty and correlation), product characteristics (commonality and modularity), supply characteristics (uncertainty in supply quantity and lead-time) and production characteristics (build-to-order, make-to-stock, postponement, substitution). Analytical models will be developed and effective solution methodologies will also be provided for large-scale (industry size) problems that can be implemented easily. This research is motivated by real problems at a wide variety of firms including IBM, Perkin-Elmer Ford and US Filter. If successful the results of this research will provide new insights on the inter-relationships between demand, supply product and production characteristics in manufacturing systems that can be utilized by firms not only for operating their current product lines but also while adopting new strategies. Further, the ability to model industry size problems will provide an opportunity to incorporate the results and insights in a decision support tool as well. It is expected that analytical and empirical insights obtained will answer several what if questions that managers of such production systems have today. In the teaching component new curriculum that integrates business and engineering aspects of the topic will be developed. In addition new teaching tools such as cases, short articles and interactive games will be developed to communicate the research of the investigator in a more effective manner to students and to a wider audience across the country.