While the level of investment in manufacturing infrastructure is a major influence to its performance, this cannot be varied in a responsive manner, to address immediate issues such as a component shortage or a quality problem. While investment in the form of over-capacity within the manufacturing system – or in high levels of safety stocks – offers a way to ensure that the system can deliver when needed, it may be possible to achieve similar levels of service from a less expensive system if the logistic controls within the system are matched to the demands that are likely to be made.

The purpose of the internal logistics studies described here was to evaluate a series of alternative logistic control methods, under a variety of situations, to show how each would perform. The situations modelled are based upon real events that have been observed within aerospace supply chains; by varying the logistic controls applied within the manufacturing system it was possible to investigate how the presence of a buffer, or an alternative scheduling rule, etc., might have affected with performance of the system.

The goal was to identify where improvements in the performance of the system as a whole could be made, without requiring substantial investments in new machinery and the like. Performance, in this context, must be considered against multiple criteria, such as the fill rate achieved, the robustness of the manufacturing system and the cost of work-in-progress (WIP) held within the system. The reader will see how some improvements can be made at little or no cost.

 

The aims and objectives of this work may be summarised as follows: