Multicriteria methodology for decoupling point placement in manufacturing systems

Abstract

Synchronization between production scheduling and real demand isan issue of great concern for production practitioners and academics.Put in a nutshell, the solution requires the placement of a decouplingpoint in order to get a trade-off between efficiency and flexibility. In thecontext of a postponement production strategy, a decoupling point is aninventory buffer to create independence between the process and finaldemand. Upstream of the decoupling point, the process is managed undera make-to-stock approach; in contrast, downstream operations meet thefinal demand under a make-to-order approach. In this sense, the presentpaper proposes a multicriteria methodology to locate decoupling pointsin manufacturing systems. The methodology consists of two stages, withtwo and three steps respectively. In the first stage, the decision criteria andalternative for decoupling points are chosen. In the second one, the finaldecoupling point placement is determined. By applying the methodologyin a metalworking company, the location of the decoupling points for nineproduction lines was obtained.