Integrated Decision Support Models for Manufacturing: An Example from the Electronics Industry

In response to increased competition, shorter product life cycles, and more demanding customers, manufacturers in many industries have been forced to adopt a service orientation to be more responsive in meeting customer needs. These developments during the past decade have caused significant impact on the internal operations and emphasized the need for greater operational flexibility and improved coordination within the firm, in particular, between marketing and manufacturing. In this paper, Devanath Tirupati describes a decision support system that was developed in response to such needs faced by a printed circuit board manufacturer in the electronics industry. The core functionality of this order analysis and rescheduling system (OARS) was based on a hierarchical approach and comprised of a series of mathematical programming based optimization models, while data integrity was assured by an integrated set of data bases. Finally, successful development and implementation was, in no small measure, due to the use of an interdisciplinary approach with project team involving representatives from the user groups from the beginning.