Structural Flexibility: A New Perspective on the Design of Manufacturing and Service Operations

Seyed M. Iravani (), Mark P. Van Oyen () and Katharine T. Sims ()
Additional contact information
Seyed M. Iravani: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208
Mark P. Van Oyen: School of Business Administration, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611
Katharine T. Sims: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

Management Science, 2005, vol. 51, issue 2, 151-166

Abstract: In this paper, we present a new perspective on flexibility in manufacturing and service operations by exploring a type of operational flexibility that we term Üstructural flexibility (SF).Ý We focus on strategic-level issues of how flexibility can be created by using multipurpose resources such as cross-trained labor, flexible machines, or flexible factories. The proposed structural flexibility method uses the structure of the capability pattern to generate indices that quantify the ability of a system to respond to variability in its environment. Simulations of serial and parallel queueing networks provide evidence that this index is useful in predicting the performance rank of alternative designs for implementing multifunctionality in the face of variability. The proposed methodology supports managerial insight into structural design of manufacturing and service systems at the strategic level.

Keywords: flexibility; cross-training; max flow algorithm; serial and parallel production systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (59)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0333 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:51:y:2005:i:2:p:151-166

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().