Last Update 08/04/2019
Main Research Topics
- Modular design;
- Integrated product process design;
- Product variety management;
- Reconfigurable manufacturing systems;
- Mass Customization.
Is it still ok to mass produce thousands of standard products and put them out there in the market pushing customers to buy them? Do we still need to mass produce huge quantities of products whereas many will not be sold and be transformed into waste?
We are each unique and hence we want unique products and services. These can be obtained when the customer (us) contributes to the design of the product and not only buys what is already produced. Mass customization allows to produce just what the customer wants as he wants it. Hence reducing unneccessary waste and stopping overproduction.
In order to produce high variety products that are each different and customized by the customer and at very small quantities, we need new flexible manufacturing systems, such as reconfigurable manufacturing systems who can be rearranged in order to produce different products.
We also need modularity, that allows us to have different modules that can arranged in many ways to form different products. Modularity saves money and time while allowing to offer high variety and customized products.
PhD thesis
Title: VALUE NETWORK MODELLING AND SIMULATION AS A STRATEGIC DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MOVING FROM MASS PRODUCTION TO MASS CUSTOMIZATION
Mass customization (MC) has become a reality and an important strategy for survival in today's economy. It is defined as producing customized products at a cost similar to that of mass production (MP). However there are several ways to offer customized products, such as adding customized services, chosing among different colors, combining different modules, and co-designing the product. Since 1993, several works have helped companies in several specific areas, such as tools for designing mass customized products, tools supporting the interaction with the customer, etc…Nevertheless, one question remains unanswered: how to decide to move from MP to MC? How to evaluate this opportunity to improve the performance of the enterprise? How to decide what type of MC to put in place? What are the most important factors to drive? And how to evaluate the transition from a MC system to that of MP?
To address these issues we propose a decision support method and tool to move from MP to MC. Our approach consists of evaluating the enterprise’s performance by modelling and simulating a value network. Our scientific proposal is validated via a case study from the footwear industry. We use the SimulValor language to which we have made some improvements, and a discrete event simulation system in which we created our own library of value network. The main indicator of performance is the value generated for which we propose a model that is combined with the conceptual model of the value network. The combined models are simulated and evaluated to help determine the transition from MP to MC considering not only profit, but also delays, costs and customer satisfaction.
Keywords: Mass customization, modelling, simulation, performance, value, value network.
Download thesis (the thesis is in french), Click here