THE EFFECTS OF PURCHASED PARTS COMMONALITY ON MANUFACTURING LEAD TIME

Manufacturing managers as well as researchers suggest that reducing ma nufacturing lead time is essential for competing in world-class manufa cturing environments. To achieve world-class manufacturing status, org anizations implement a variety of programmes to decrease manufacturing lead time. Uses simulation to analyse the effect of purchased parts s tandardization on manufacturing lead time under the assumption of limi ted vendor delivery uncertainty. Creates a wide range of degrees of co mmonality based on three sets of multilevel product structures with th e variations of end-item demand and quantity usage. The statistical re sults indicate that: increased commonality lowers manufacturing lead t ime; a more informative commonality measure other than the well-known degree of commonality index (DCI) is necessary to represent the actual commonality; and the distribution of purchased parts usage across dif ferent end items affects manufacturing lead time performance. The resu lts provide important implications for both manufacturing and product design management.