A flexible and adaptable planning and control system for an MTO supply chain system

Evolving consumer demand has led to the emergence of a new business era where change plays a dominant role. This new era has in turn posed a number of competences that supply chain systems need to posses so as to survive and prosper under change and uncertainty. The main aim of this work is to model the performance of an make-to-order (MTO) production environment that operates as part of a wider supply chain network under various control policies and identify the best performing ones. A simulation model has been created and used as a tool to help quantify the effects of three control policies on this MTO system. A number of performance metrics such as Work-in-process (WIP), tardiness, responsiveness and mean flow time have been considered to provide further insight into the impact of these three localised control policies. The three control policies implemented were push, and two modes of pull control, which are, CONWIP and tight pull.