Integrated and Traceable Supply Chain in One-of-a-Kind Production

人们认识到，21世纪的市场对制造商提出了越来越多的要求，要求他们能够在全球范围内迅速交付各种定制产品。具有大规模定制和并行工程显著特征的单件生产(OKP)正是为了迎接这一挑战而发展起来的。OKP模式及其方法特别适用于加拿大等发达国家的制造企业：这些公司往往是中小型企业，生产非常小(或单一)批次的定制产品。提高生产效率和降低成本是这些中小企业与海外大型制造公司(通常是企业集团)竞争的关键。根据我们的初步调查，一个完整、可靠和可追溯的供应链可以显著降低OKP公司或中小企业的生产成本，提高生产效率。该研究计划的长期目标是推进OKP计划和控制理论，并培训高素质的人员，以帮助加拿大制造公司，特别是中小企业，提高生产效率和客户满意度，并降低成本和交货期。短期目标是：(1)OKP供应链集成；(2)OKP供应链风险预测与管理；(3)OKP供应链可追溯性模型与方法。拟议的研究将产生概念、定义、模型、算法、启发式方法和系统框架，以开发一种新的制造范例，简称OKP系统，该系统能够在集成、可靠和可追溯的供应链中大规模生产定制产品。此外，高素质的人员将被培训为制造系统、工程优化、计算机模拟和建模以及管理科学等多学科领域的学者或实践者。

It is recognized that the markets of the 21st century have placed increasing demands on manufacturers to be able to quickly deliver a great variety of customized products across the globe. One-of-a-kind production (OKP) with its significant features of mass customization and concurrent engineering has been specifically developed to meet this challenge. The OKP paradigm and its methodology are particularly applicable to manufacturing businesses in developed countries such as Canada: these companies are often small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that produce customized products in very small (or single) batch sizes. Improvement of production efficiency and reduction of costs are critical for these SMEs to compete with large manufacturing companies (often conglomerates) overseas. Based on our initial investigations, an integrated, reliable and traceable supply chain can dramatically reduce production costs and improve production efficiency for OKP companies or SMEs. The long-term goals of this research program are the advancement of OKP planning and control theory and the training of highly qualified personnel to help Canadian manufacturing companies, particularly SMEs, to improve their production efficiency and customer satisfaction, and reduce costs and lead times. The short-term objectives are (1) OKP supply chain integration, (2) risk prediction and management of the OKP supply chain, and (3) models and methods for OKP supply chain traceability. The proposed research will generate concepts, definitions, models, algorithms, heuristics and system frameworks for the development of a novel manufacturing paradigm, simply called an OKP system, that is able to mass produce customized products in an integrated, reliable and traceable supply chain. Moreover, highly qualified personnel will be trained as academics or practitioners in the multidisciplinary area of manufacturing systems, engineering optimization, computer simulation and modeling, and management science.