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The materials planning (MP) environment sets the prerequisites for the MP process. Before and during production transfer and start-up (PTS) supply chain uncertainty of the MP environment increases, as the company goes from a known to an unknown situation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of the MP environment on the MP process before and during PTS.

A conceptual framework describing the MP environment before and during PTS is developed and applied to one case of outsourcing from Sweden to China. The framework is based on a literature review and further evaluated by both researchers and managers.

A conceptual framework describing the dynamic MP environment before and during PTS has been developed compared to previously static MP environments descriptions. In addition, this framework proved to be useful in analysing the importance of various characteristics of the MP environment before and during PTS.

The study highlights the importance of a proactive approach to materials availability when transferring production. The conceptual framework developed here can be used as a checklist to identify the characteristics of the MP environment that are most important to ensuring materials availability.

The paper highlights the PTS when outsourcing, a substantial time frame with a large impact on success. This is an important contribution, given the focus of previous outsourcing research on strategic issues. Further, the paper demonstrates the differences between static and dynamic MP environments.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of how the materials feeding design at a workstation impacts the assembly process performance, in terms of manufacturing flexibility, process support, materials planning and work task efficiency.

The empirical data are based on two embedded case studies performed in close corporation with two Swedish automotive companies; additional observations from more than 20 company visits in Japan, and small‐scale case studies performed in Japanese companies. To fully assess the work measurement figures, video recordings, work instructions and layout drawings were used to plot the operators' walking patterns, and it was then possible to map the whole work cycle for an operator. Industrial engineers, managers, group leaders, team leaders and operators were interviewed. Based on the literature review and personal experience from the small‐scale case studies carried out in Japan, the existing assembly systems' component racks were conceptually re‐designed. This led to two hypothetical assembly systems, which could be used for understanding the impact of materials feeding design on assembly process performance. The design of the new component racks and the choice of packaging types were made together with practitioners.

The paper shows that the design of component racks and choice of packaging types have a major impact on the assembly process performance. Component racks with a large depth and small width and tailored packages create important advantages over traditional Swedish component racks designed for EUR‐pallets. Line stocking is not always the best choice for materials feeding, but this paper shows that line stocking, especially in Swedish assembly systems, can be improved. Sequencing can thus be reduced, resulting in fewer problems when there are sequence breaks in the production flow. Component racks with small packages and large depth increase the work task efficiency, volume, mix, new products and modification flexibility. For example, free space is an important issue for these types of flexibilities. Component racks that are portable and easy to rearrange, together with free space, greatly facilitate handling of new product introductions or modifications of products. The new and old component can be displayed and fed to the same workstation, and if there is a larger change a whole segment of a component rack can easily be replaced by a new one between work shifts.

The scope of the study is limited to the conditions at workstations. Consequences for the materials flow upstream (i.e. internal materials handling, warehousing, transport, supplier processes, etc.) are not included, but must in further studies also be considered to avoid sub‐optimisation.

The paper highlights the fact that a shift in focus is necessary when designing workstations with component racks in Swedish companies, meaning that operators become the customers rather than the transport company or materials handler.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the impact of engineering changes on the materials planning process.

This study is based on a conceptual discussion and empirical data from a case study of a supply chain in the automotive industry, including end producers (two OEM companies) and first, second and third tier suppliers.

A framework comprising the situational dimensions of the engineering change was derived from the conceptual discussion and described in terms of product, supply, manufacturing, demand and materials planning characteristics. The empirical study shows the characteristics of the engineering change in the case company and how these have both positive and negative, as well as direct and indirect, influences on the materials scrap, administrative and transport/handling costs. The impact of the actual materials planning strategies is also shown. Another finding was that different engineering change situations exist within the same company. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between them and to use different planning strategies for each situation. The paper discusses how such differentiated strategies could be developed in the case companies and in general.

The case study focused on a specific product and materials planning situation in the automotive supply chain. Other products and materials planning situations resulting from the same engineering change would have different characteristics and should, therefore, be planned and controlled accordingly. However, the developed framework is a general one.

The appropriateness of a materials planning strategy differs between different engineering change situations. This calls for differentiated materials planning strategies based on the engineering change situation and materials planning characteristics. The framework developed in this paper describes the entire materials planning environment in engineering change situations in order to understand when and how to differentiate materials planning strategies.

This paper fulfils a need for a framework that describes the impact on materials planning from an engineering change perspective. This framework is the first step in the designing of a normative guideline for differentiated materials planning strategies in an engineering change situation.

The purpose of this paper is to define dimensions for describing information quality deficiencies and to describe forecast and customer order information quality deficiencies on various manufacturing planning and control levels.

The purpose is fulfilled through the following steps: firstly, a literature review on information quality in manufacturing planning and control processes is conducted and the dimensions for describing information quality deficiencies are identified and defined, secondly, three case studies are presented in order to describe the phenomena in the companies' various manufacturing planning and control levels.

A gross list of ten dimensions were defined from the literature and used in describing information quality deficiencies in forecasts and customer orders of three different cases.

Information quality deficiencies in manufacturing planning and control processes has been the subject of little research so far, despite the fact that the studied processes are extensively dependent on the input information. The contribution lies in the defined and exemplified dimensions for describing information quality deficiencies as a first step towards an information quality assessment model for manufacturing planning and control.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the manufacturing and supply chain flexibility impact on the ability to transfer production between the units, i.e. production network coordination. To take advantage of available opportunities for different actors and locations, companies need to effectively transfer production.

The case studied was a transfer of production between The Netherlands and Sweden. The case was selected based on the opportunity it provided to perform a longitudinal study of an ongoing production transfer.

Different flexibility dimensions have different importance depending on the receiver or sender. A production transfer can be divided into four parts: knowledge, physical, administrative and supply chain transfer. The manufacturing flexibility have a high impact on the physical and knowledge transfer, the new product development dimension also have a major impact on the administrative transfer in combination with the supply chain flexibility dimension IT. The supply chain transfer was impacted by the supply chain flexibility dimensions except IT.

The paper presents a first step towards a tool for analysing the strength and weaknesses within units in relation to receiving/sending production. Furthermore, that the production transfer should be viewed as four parts with interdependencies help to identify the order of the transfer process.

This paper widens the flexibility concept to a network level. Furthermore, it describes the link between the strategic decision of coordination in the network and the operational ability of the network to accomplish this change.