Strategic planning of agile assembly systems for electronics industries /
Electronics industry is characterized by uncertainty in product demands due to the dynamics of consumer needs. Agile manufacturing has emerged as a strategic choice for electronics manufacturers to survive and succeed in such dynamic environments. This research is concerned with the strategic plan...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1997.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=736824971&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | Electronics industry is characterized by uncertainty in product demands due to the dynamics of consumer needs. Agile manufacturing has emerged as a strategic choice for electronics manufacturers to survive and succeed in such dynamic environments. This research is concerned with the strategic planning of agile electronics assembly systems. It provides a strategic link between manufacturing planning and business planning. This research addresses in an integrated manner the strategic issues involved in selecting partners and products and the decisions regarding the configuration and reconfiguration of electronics assembly facilities over time in concert with the changes in the market environment. The fundamental strategic planning decisions considered in this research are those regarding the selection of products and partner companies and reconfiguration of in-house assembly facilities. Two general problems, namely, product selection and agile enterprise reconfiguration, are developed to provide the strategic planning decisions for configuring and operating agile electronic enterprises. The product selection problem determines the set of partner firms that constitute the agile enterprise and the set of products to produce in the enterprise in the long term. Embedded in the product selection problem are two subproblems called the partner selection problem and the flexible facility reconfiguration problem. The agile enterprise reconfiguration problem provides a medium term planning framework that considers dynamic reconfiguration of the agile enterprise in concert with the changing product demands. Subcontracting problem and flexible facility reconfiguration problem are two subproblems that are embedded in the agile enterprise reconfiguration problem. The two general problems and the embedded subproblems are formulated as mixed integer programming models. The flexible facility reconfiguration problem is solved using a genetic algorithm-based heuristic. The partner selection and subcontracting problems are solved using a specialized branch and bound procedure. An iterative strategy that combines the subproblem solution procedures is developed to solve the two general strategic planning problems. All the solution procedures developed in this research provide high quality solutions in an efficient manner. This research represents an important step towards advancing the state of the art in planning and designing agile electronics assembly systems by integrating agile business practices together with flexible assembly strategies. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Industrial Engineering". |
| Physical Description: | xi, 258 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references: pages 144-149. |