A complexity measure for assembly supply chains has been proposed based on Shannon’s information entropy. This paper extends the definition of such a measure by incorporating the detailed information of the supply chain structure, the number of variants offered by each node in the supply chain, and the mix ratios of the variants at each node. The complexity measure is then applied to finding the optimal assembly supply chain configuration given the number of variants offered at the final assembler and the mix ratios of these variants. The optimal assembly supply chain configuration is theoretically studied in two special scenarios: (1) there is only one dominant variant among all the variants offered by the final assembler, and (2) demand shares are equal across all variants at the final assembler. It is shown that in the first scenario where one variant dominates the demand, the optimal assembly supply chain should be nonmodular; but in the scenario of equal demand shares, a modular supply chain is better than nonmodular one when the product variety is high. Finally a methodology is developed to find the optimal supply chain with/without assembly sequence constraints for general demands.
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e-mail: johnwang@umich.edu
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April 2010
Research Papers
A Complexity Model for Assembly Supply Chains and Its Application to Configuration Design
Hui Wang,
Hui Wang
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering,
e-mail: johnwang@umich.edu
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Jeonghan Ko,
Jeonghan Ko
Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
, Lincoln, NE 68588
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Xiaowei Zhu,
Xiaowei Zhu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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S. Jack Hu
S. Jack Hu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Search for other works by this author on:
Hui Wang
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering,
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109e-mail: johnwang@umich.edu
Jeonghan Ko
Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
, Lincoln, NE 68588
Xiaowei Zhu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
S. Jack Hu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, MI 48109J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. Apr 2010, 132(2): 021005 (12 pages)
Published Online: March 30, 2010
Article history
Received:
April 30, 2009
Revised:
January 14, 2010
Online:
March 30, 2010
Published:
March 30, 2010
Citation
Wang, H., Ko, J., Zhu, X., and Hu, S. J. (March 30, 2010). "A Complexity Model for Assembly Supply Chains and Its Application to Configuration Design." ASME. J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. April 2010; 132(2): 021005. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4001082
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