Simulation optimization approach for customer centric lot streaming problem in job shops

In today´s competitive market, time based strategies become important to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, manufacturing companies need advanced production planning and control (PPC) techniques in order to respond quickly to demand. In addition, customer centricity becomes the key success factor for manufacturing industry. In this regard, integration of customer relationship management (CRM) and PPC decisions is necessary in order to satisfy customers with efficient use of manufacturing capabilities. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of customer centricity on lot streaming (LS) problem. To this aim, LS problem in job shop environment is dealt with in this study, and traditional LS problem is extended by including preferences of multiple customer segments. It is intended to find a lot splitting policy for each customer segment-product type combination. The objective function is defined as minimization of total weighted percentage deviation from the preferences of customer segments. Simulation optimization approach is used to solve the problem. The results reveal that the proposed approach supports order splitting decisions, and can effectively be used in practice.