Measuring complexity as an aid to developing operational strategy

Abstract

One of the difficulties in developing a coherent operational strategy is to know how the various elements of a manufacturing system interact and to assess the relevant importance of each. Looks at the manufacturing systems and how complex they are. A measure which calculates the systems′ complexity and the contribution from each operational source has been developed. It thus provides a tool that can assist in a strategy development exercise by quantifying the problem areas on a common basis. The approach has been used at three manufacturing sites. The resulting analysis allowed the local management, in each case, to identify the key areas of weakness, in both the short and medium term. As such it gave each of them a possible starting‐point from which to formulate an operational strategy.

Evaluation of Autonomous Logistic Processes — Analysis of the Influence of Structural Complexity

“…This can be used for complexity measurement because the more complex a system is, the more elements and relations are included and the more information is necessary to describe the system. Those considerations were adopted by Frizelle and Woodcock to develop equations to measure complexity in production systems based on the diversity and uncertainty of information within the system (Frizelle and Woodcock 1995). They defined the structural complexity as the expected amount of information necessary to describe the state of a system.…”

“…Some approaches to measure complexity use the measurement of entropy as basis (Deshmuk et al 1998;Frizelle 1998;Frizelle and Woodcock 1995;Sivadasan et al 1999;Jones et al 2002;Karp 1994;Gellmann and Lloyd 1994). In thermodynamic systems entropy can be deemed to be the degree of disorganization of the considered system.…”

Complexity and variety in mass customization systems: analysis and recommendations

“…On the other hand, the entropic measure has been successfully applied to examine the complexity of manufacturing systems (e.g. Deshmukh et al, 1998;Frizelle and Woodcock, 1995) or supply chains (e.g. ; Sivadasan et al, 2002).…”

Complexity in Supply Chains: A New Approachto Quantitative Measurement of the Supply-Chain-Complexity

“…Ronen and Karp (1994) developed an approach that determines the location of a lot by using entropy measurement. Entropy as a measure of complexity in supply chains was first introduced by Frizelle and Woodcock (1995). Later, Sivadasan et al (2002), Deshmukh et al (1998) and Sivadasan et al (2006) studied their approach with an industry practice done by the Institute for Manufacturing (IFM) at Oxford and Cambridge universities (see website www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/csp/projects/complexschain.html).…”

“…Later, Isik (2010) provided their approach and modified the complexity measures. In prior entropy-based works on complexity (Shannon, 1948;Shannon and Weaver, 1949;Frizelle Woodcock, 1995;Sivadasan et al, 2002;Sivadasan et al, 2006), it is argued that complexity (or entropy) is only a function of probabilities of different states. However, Isik (2010) argues that complexity is not only a function of probabilities of different states, but also each state can have different complexity levels of its own that needs to be considered.…”