Comparison of Dynamic Decoupling Point and Dynamic Buffer Level for Flexible Flow Shops in a Hybrid MTS–MTO Production Model

Abstract

The competition and the volatility of today’s production context require that enterprises are able to rapidly adapt to changes, reducing total costs in production. The main relationship between producer and consumer can be conducted through Make-To-Order (MTO) or Make-To-Stock (MTS) systems. This study proposes a hybrid MTS and MTO production system with a dynamic decoupling point. The proposed model concerns the monitoring of earliness and tardiness of customer orders to move the decoupling point towards MTS or MTO. Simulation models are proposed to test the proposed model following periodic or continuous review. The numerical results highlight that the best dynamic approach is the periodic review, which is more effective when the customer demand rate is higher.