Assembly-to-order production management : a case study of Volvo truck production

Abstract

This report is focused on assembly-to-order product management for a manufacturing company. In order to maintain global competitiveness, companies are sourcing for means to increase their market share. One such method is the ability to offer a wide range of products to the consumer. Such drawbacks are the inefficient methods of applying such practices. Mass customization is a business strategy that combines two business practices, which are mass production and craft production. It aims to provide customers with individualized products at near mass production efficiency. In order to implement mass customization in the Volvo case study, postponement concept has been selected as the foundation for implementing mass customization. As state-of-the-art mass faces many challenges, the author has selected to concentrate on the internal complexities of the operation and focused on internalizing the factors with mass customization while maintaining the external factors like logistics as a constant. This decision has allowed a more accurate prediction for the scenarios hence being able to identify the major qualities of the system which directly affects efficiency. This report details the author’s breakdown of the current situation in the Volvo Truck Manufacturing plant in Goteborg, Sweden and the implementation methods to transverse it into Flexsim Simulation software. Following which the analysis of the data using key performance indicators to justify the successful implementation of the postponement concept. Upon reflection on the results, the final conclusion provides an overview of each scenario while pointing out its main contribution to research on mass customization.