A CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGING CONGESTION IN MANUFACTURING

This paper discusses the management of congestion in manufacturing. To ugher competitive situations have led to increasing attention being pa id to customer satisfaction, of which timely and customized services a re the key concepts. The decisions on how firms should trade off these expectations against high utilization of capital equipment and limite d inventories are important to manage congestion effectively. A concep tual framework is presented in this paper for solving the problems of congestion in manufacturing. This framework takes into account the (i) role of cost accounting, (ii) presence of network externalities, (iii ) evaluation of customer queueing costs, (iv) impact of entry regulati on on congestion levels, and (v) pricing, competitive issues, and stra tegic implications in solving the problems of congestion. In addition, the role of new production concepts and technologies in the managemen t of congestion is discussed in this paper.