A Reference Scenario for IMS Strategic Design

Today is fully acknowledged that manufacturing is a formidable competitive weapon. The strength of such a weapon is essentially defined during the first step of the design phase called strategic design. During this phase, in fact, the principal characteristics of the manufacturing systems are to be defined taking into account the competitive environment and the competition strategy. Classical analytical models for IMS design often neglect this aspect and, perhaps, this is one of the causes of IMS failure. The paper proposes a set of analytical models for strategic IMS design; they have been classified into four classes, each one pursuing a determined set of objectives, providing, in this wa…