Production complexity management

Polymerization and depolymerization of sihcate anions and their interactions with other ions and complexing agents are of great interest in sol—gel and catalyst manufacture, detergency, oil and gas production, waste management, and limnology (45—50). The complex silanol condensation process may be represented empirically by... 

Meat producers often experience difficulty co-ordinating the complex management of production, processing, delivery and sales system required to target the restaurant market. Compared with wholesalers, individual restaurants do not use large quantities of meat. It would be advantageous for the farmer to be near a large metropolitan area with numerous restaurants. Access to a variety of restaurants will allow the farmer to use up more of his animal. The norm is for the farmer to establish a route and deliver once or twice a week. The farmer could also sell meat bones to chefs who appreciate the quality for soup stock. 

Commodity vs. specialty is not only related to product properties from a company-internal perspective but also to the business associated with this product. The management of commodities is less focused on product complexity as in the case of specialties, e.g. related to product variants, packaging and small volumes. It is more related to manage large volumes and values as well as prices. Consequently, the differentiation of commodities and specialties impacts the management of the value chain significantly. 

Florian, M.K., Lenstra, J.K., and Rinnooy Khan, A.H. (1980) Deterministic production planning Algorithms and complexity. Management Science, 26, 669. 

A known concept for manufacturing optimization is, for example, the cmicept of Virtual Manufacturing. Its basic idea is the simulation of the real world to create a test field for conducting experiments on the influence of production design on the systems performance. Therefore, a comparison and appropriate adoption of the real production system is needed continuously (Wiendahl and Scholtissek 1994). Figure 2 summarizes the current trends in the field of complexity management described in this section. 

Product Lifecycle Management, which comprehends new product introduction and product sunset, in order to reduce supply chain complexity and allow becoming agile. 

The automotive industry is another vivid example of where success or failure is strongly influenced by the company s ability to proactively manage product lifecycles (Korth 2003). Increased product complexity, greater reliance on outsourcing and a growing need for collaboration with a rapidly expanding list of business partners are the specific PLM challenges the industry faces (Teresko... 

Lindemann U, Maurer M, Braun T (2009) Structural complexity management. An approach for the field of product design. Springer, Berlin... 

---