Impact of Sharing Imprecise Information on Fixed-Bin Selective Assembly

Abstract

Fixed-Bin Selective Assembly (FBSA) is widely used to improve the assembly quality of single units of different component types. FBSA has parts with similar dimensions, but with slight deviations due to production variances, sorted into pre-determined bins. A selection is made from paired bins for assembly. To ensure enough components, assemblers adopt a proactive or reactive strategy. For the proactive, predictions of component usage quantities are used to adjust processes for the internally manufactured matched component prior to production. With the reactive, component inventory levels are adjusted after assembly. The performance of each can be improved with information about incoming part dimensions. However, the communicated information may be imprecise. We developed a Bayesian Measurement Error Model to evaluate the impact of imprecision, in the supplier’s communicated information, on the efficacy of FBSA with either strategy. The model was tested with parameters obtained from a US assembler of combustion engines. We find that in most scenarios, the proactive approach results in better FBSA efficacy on average. A key exception was when imprecise information about the mean was communicated, resulting in no significant difference. The reactive approach is typically easier to implement, therefore it may be preferred when communicated information about the mean of incoming part dimensions is often inaccurate.

Keywords:

• Bayesian measurement error model
• Selective assembly
• Shared imprecise Information

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

T. Clottey

Toyin Clottey, is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at Wayne State University. He holds a PhD in Operations Management and an MS in Statistics from The Ohio State University. Dr. Clottey’s research interests are in sustainable operations, supply forecasting, information sharing for assembly systems and survey research methods. His publications have appeared in top supply chain and industrial engineering journals, including Production and Operations Management, IIE Transactions, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Logistics, and others. He is a member of the Decision Sciences Institute, INFORMS and the Production and Operations Management Society. Before joining academia, he worked for Maersk Logistics for several years in Ghana.

WC Benton

W. C. Benton, Jr. is the Edwin D. Dodd Professor of Management and Distinguished Research Professor of Operations and Analytics in the Max M. Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University. Dr. Benton received his doctorate in both operations and management and quantitative business analysis from Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Benton’s vast research and writing accomplishments include articles in the areas of health care performance issues, economics of cardiovascular surgery, sustainable operations, information sharing for assembly systems, inventory control, supply chain management, and manufacturing planning and control that have appeared in The Encyclopedia of Operations Research, The New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, American College of Physician Executives, Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, Naval Research Logistics, IIE Transactions, Production and Operations Management, Interfaces and others. He serves as a panel member for the Engineer and Manufacturing and Service Enterprise Systems Divisions at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Benton has published five textbooks.