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In this article we present a game that can be used as a tool to educate students and managers on the issues in supply chain (SC), inventory management. The game has a bilevel demand with one level during regular times and another during sale times. The game could be played in two modes (independence and cooperation) and has been field tested in engineering and business classes. Players developed an appreciation for fluctuating demand and its impact on the costs and performance of a SC. They also learned the benefits and a monetary evaluation approach for cooperation. Our statistical analysis revealed that, as the game progressed, the performance of the teams improved. We present an integer linear programming (ILP) model to evaluate the performance of the teams. Because it is a post facto analysis, while the game is played without knowing the materialized retailer demand for the period, the ILP solution is not a tight lower bound on the total cost of the SC. However, it could be used to compare performance across teams. As an alternative, we also present a possible distribution of total SC costs that could be used as another reference without actually solving an ILP.

This study examines the effects of sequencing flexibility on the performance of rules used to schedule operations in manufacturing systems. The findings show that taking advantage of even low levels of sequencing flexibility in the set of operations required to do a job results in substantial improvement in the performance of scheduling rules with respect to mean flowtime. Differences in the mean flowtime measure for various rules also diminish significantly with increasing sequencing flexibility. Performance improvements additionally result for such due-date related performance measures as mean tardiness and the proportion of jobs tardy. At high levels of sequencing flexibility, some nonparametric scheduling rules outperform the shortest processing time rule in terms of the mean flowtime criterion. Rules based on job due dates also outperform rules based on operation milestones in terms of tardiness related criteria at high levels of sequencing flexibility. The implications of these findings for the design of manufacturing systems and product design are noted. Subject Areas: Production/Operations Management and Scheduling.

We address a dynamic single-machine scheduling problem where the objective is to minimize the weighted absolute deviation of completion times from the due dates. This objective approximates a decisionmaker's goal in a just-in-time environment which is the primary motivation for the problem. Several heuristics are developed and tested. We use a novel approach to heuristic development by designing it in modules. At each decision epoch, the front end provides a lookahead feature, the main theme develops a sequence, and the balancing routine determines the schedule. The performance of the heuristics as well as modules of the heuristics are tested by simulation experiments across several classes of problems. By analysing the results we develop some guidelines for operational decisions.

Reports on the computer‐aided design (CAD) upgrade implementation process at PBR Automotive Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia. Views the implementation as successful since many of the desired outcomes have been achieved or surpassed. The key success factors were detailed planning, user involvement and vendor support. These combined to create an atmosphere of excitement in the project and success. Reports on the future plans that include the development of an integrated information system at PBR which will involve customers and suppliers in addition to internal personnel. The CAD system upgrade serves as a launching board for the development of such a system.