Reserch On Posteponement Application In Cookware Production

With the technical development and the growth of productivity, production lead-time is shortened, which makes time the focus of competition. Multi-variety and small-lot becomes the main production style due to the diversification and individuation of customer requirement. Hence mass customization (MC) occurs to meet the requirement of flexibility and promptness. Postponement is one of the significant methods of mass customization. Production based on postponement could on one hand lower the cost by mass production and meet the individual customer requirement, and on the other hand, standardized parts are produced before customer order decoupling point (CODP), it takes less time to finish customization afterwards, which could realize promptness. And that's just the target of mass customization.The application of postponement in cookware production is the main content of this article. Firstly, cookware product structure and production process is researched and modified based on the theory of Product Family and Product GBOM, to realize parts standardization while the main character of cookware product not changed. And then the CODP is oriented according to the standardized cookware part, which splits the production into two phases,"make to stock"or"forecast-pushed"before CODP and"make to order"or"order-pulled"after CODP. Finally, a detailed method of planning and controlling for the two production phases is introduced:master production scheduling (MPS) and material requirements planning (MRP) is used in the first"push"phase while KANBAN is implemented in the second"pull"phase.Started from problem analysis, through product modification, this article focuses on the design and implementation of 2-phase production planning based on postponement strategy. After the implementation, lead-time is shortened, finished goods stock reduced, production cost lowered and productivity heightened.