Impact of Unreliable Subcontracting on Production and Maintenance Planning Considering Quality Decline

Abstract

Manufacturing systems face several disturbances during production, such as sudden failures, defects, and unreliable subcontractors that reduce their production capacity. Currently, subcontracting represents an efficient alternative to support production decisions. The novelty of the study was the development of a new integrated model that properly coordinates production, subcontracting, and maintenances strategies in the context of stochastic uncertainty, quality deterioration, and random subcontracting availability. Such a set of characteristics has not been addressed before in the literature. A simulation–optimization approach was proposed to address such a stochastic model. A numerical case study was performed as an illustration of the approach and a comprehensive sensitivity analysis was performed to analyze the impact of several costs. Furthermore, the effect of the availability of the subcontractor and the producer was analyzed. The main finding of the study showed that the integrated model led to significant economic cost savings compared to other approaches that address such policies in isolation. The results also indicated that quality deterioration had a strong impact on the subcontracting rate and that the proposed joint control policy adequately coordinated these three key functions. The level of subcontracting participation was directly defined by its availability and the subcontracting cost.

Brittleness Evolution Model of the Supply Chain Network Based on Adaptive Agent Graph Theory under the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Under the trend of globalization, business models such as production outsourcing and lean manufacturing have been adopted, which reduce costs and improve efficiency, while making the supply chain system more vulnerable [4]. The collapse of any node may trigger the brittleness of the whole system and lead to the collapse of the entire supply chain network, which would bring huge economic losses to enterprises [5]. Therefore, grasping the brittleness evolution law of the supply chain system to reduce and eliminate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has become an important issue in the field of supply chain security [6,7].…”

“…The relationship between the vertex state value x t+1 i and the entropy flow value f t+1 i is determined by the IF/THEN rules in the actuator. (5) The updated flow f t+1 i of the vertex agent would be used as input to the actuator in times of t + 1.…”

Special Issue: “The Planning and Scheduling of Manufacturing Systems”

“…Rivera-Gómez et al [1] developed an original integrated model that includes coordinate production, subcontracting, and maintenance strategies in the context of stochastic uncertainty, quality deterioration, and random subcontracting availability. The numerical results highlight how the proposed model leads to relevant economic cost savings compared to other approaches.…”