Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9459-3710
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
Degree Type
Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (M.S.I.E.O.R.)
Year Degree Awarded
2021
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
Modern manufacturing systems dealing with complex assemblies with large numbers of parts present particular challenges in the realm of supply chain management. Complex assemblies, such as those found in aerospace and automobile manufacturing, require thousands of parts to come together at the right time for final assembly. The large number of parts, often coming from hundreds of suppliers, combined with unreliable delivery times and high cost of many of these components can lead to incredibly high inventory costs and assembly delays. Typically, variable delays in part delivery are compensated for by either keeping a buffer of safety stock or a time buffer on the planned lead time of a component. In this thesis, we study the performance of various buffering strategies across a large range of practical scenarios in an effort to identify dominant, robust strategies and how their performance is impacted by the various parameters that define the system. The major conclusion is that aggressive part buffering consistently results in not only better delivery performance but also significant inventory reduction across all settings for assemblies with more than 500 parts.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/24575427.0
First Advisor
Ana Muriel
Second Advisor
Hari Balasubramanian
Third Advisor
Senay Solak
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Frere, Andrew, "Robustness of Supply Chain Synchronization Strategies" (2021). Masters Theses. 1143.
https://doi.org/10.7275/24575427.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/1143