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The applicability of manufacturing planning and control methods differs between environments. This paper explains the fit between the planning environment and material and capacity planning on the detailed material planning and shop‐floor planning levels. The study is based on a conceptual discussion and a survey of 84 Swedish manufacturing companies. Results show the use of planning methods and their levels of user satisfaction in complex customer order production, configure to order production, batch production of standardized products and repetitive mass production, respectively.

The materials planning (MP) environment sets the prerequisites for the MP process. Before and during production transfer and start-up (PTS) supply chain uncertainty of the MP environment increases, as the company goes from a known to an unknown situation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of the MP environment on the MP process before and during PTS.

A conceptual framework describing the MP environment before and during PTS is developed and applied to one case of outsourcing from Sweden to China. The framework is based on a literature review and further evaluated by both researchers and managers.

A conceptual framework describing the dynamic MP environment before and during PTS has been developed compared to previously static MP environments descriptions. In addition, this framework proved to be useful in analysing the importance of various characteristics of the MP environment before and during PTS.

The study highlights the importance of a proactive approach to materials availability when transferring production. The conceptual framework developed here can be used as a checklist to identify the characteristics of the MP environment that are most important to ensuring materials availability.

The paper highlights the PTS when outsourcing, a substantial time frame with a large impact on success. This is an important contribution, given the focus of previous outsourcing research on strategic issues. Further, the paper demonstrates the differences between static and dynamic MP environments.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the impact of engineering changes on the materials planning process.

This study is based on a conceptual discussion and empirical data from a case study of a supply chain in the automotive industry, including end producers (two OEM companies) and first, second and third tier suppliers.

A framework comprising the situational dimensions of the engineering change was derived from the conceptual discussion and described in terms of product, supply, manufacturing, demand and materials planning characteristics. The empirical study shows the characteristics of the engineering change in the case company and how these have both positive and negative, as well as direct and indirect, influences on the materials scrap, administrative and transport/handling costs. The impact of the actual materials planning strategies is also shown. Another finding was that different engineering change situations exist within the same company. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between them and to use different planning strategies for each situation. The paper discusses how such differentiated strategies could be developed in the case companies and in general.

The case study focused on a specific product and materials planning situation in the automotive supply chain. Other products and materials planning situations resulting from the same engineering change would have different characteristics and should, therefore, be planned and controlled accordingly. However, the developed framework is a general one.

The appropriateness of a materials planning strategy differs between different engineering change situations. This calls for differentiated materials planning strategies based on the engineering change situation and materials planning characteristics. The framework developed in this paper describes the entire materials planning environment in engineering change situations in order to understand when and how to differentiate materials planning strategies.

This paper fulfils a need for a framework that describes the impact on materials planning from an engineering change perspective. This framework is the first step in the designing of a normative guideline for differentiated materials planning strategies in an engineering change situation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inventory performance effect of advanced material planning modes and analyse how internal and external contextual difficulties moderate this relationship. This study also identifies avenues for future research.

The empirical analysis uses a survey of material planning for purchased items in 292 Swedish manufacturing and wholesaling companies. Three dimensions of inventory performance are dependent variables: material planning performance, inventory turnover rate, and service level.

Advanced material planning modes are directly associated with material planning performance, but this study could not verify direct associations with inventory turnover rate and service-level performances. External and internal contextual difficulties have direct effects on all inventory performance dimensions and moderate the inventory performance effect of advanced material planning modes. The moderating effect is stronger in non-difficult contexts, for which advanced material planning has significant inventory performance effects. Demand- and human-related contextual dimensions are especially critical.

The study identifies the following guidelines for companies to consider in order to unlock the potential of advanced material planning: consider full implementation of advanced material planning in non-difficult contexts; minimise the plan variability effects of high parameter revision and planning frequencies; minimise the need for, and use of, manual modification of planned orders before release; reduce demand uncertainty and variability; and secure appropriate human skills and working time.

This study somewhat contradicts the literature on material planning by not finding a direct positive effect on any inventory performance dimension from analytical design of order quantities and safety stocks. The research adds to the literature by identifying direct and moderating effects of external and internal contextual difficulties on all three-inventory performance dimensions. The relative importance of managing automatic order release identified in the study motivates future research as the effect has not been previously highlighted in the literature. Accordingly, avenues for future research and an agenda for practice-oriented research are suggested.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how companies design sales and operations planning (S & OP) contingent on the planning environment (PE).

On the basis of the literature, the paper creates an analytical framework identifying the main constructs related to the PE and S & OP design, which is the basis for gathering and analysing qualitative data from eight cases in the food industry. The findings highlight the relations between S & OP and the PE, and are used for generating three propositions.

Responding to the complex and uncertain PE, the companies set up S & OP on a stock-keeping unit (SKU) level, with the possibility of re-planning and a flexible planning horizon, thus differing from what has generally been suggested in the literature. In addition, the companies are aligning the inputs, activities, and outcomes of the S & OP process to the PE. Particularly important environmental contingencies are uncertainty connected to demand and supply, frequent product launches, and production network complexity. Product-related variables have a lower impact on the S & OP design.

The present study is limited to one industry only and a comparison between industries with larger data sets would be valuable in future studies. The study selected cases based on their S & OP maturity; further studies need to explore the effect of the alignment of S & OP and the PE on the planning performance.

In the literature, S & OP is presented as a generic process with a strict formal design that is equal for all companies. The study provides insights into how companies adjust S & OP according to the PE.

A workstation‐based system for materials planning is intended to complement a host‐based materials‐planning system, thereby leading to a multi‐level system that combines fully detailed planning procedures with “aggregate” decision support capabilities. Planning objects as well as planning procedures are formulated within the relational database frame‐work. By that means, at execution time the database management system guarantees processing efficiency as well as consistency control. After a short characterisation of the state‐of‐the‐art of database utilisation in conventional materials planning, a set of requirements which have to be met by the proposed approach is formulated. Based on this, the suitability of the relational database model as a framework for multi‐stage materials planning is discussed. In particular, the integration of abstraction hierarchies is emphasised and hierarchical planning procedures adopted from artificial intelligence are integrated into the concept. Some examples adopted from a prototype show that, at least for simple planning problems, it is possible to achieve end‐user support at any level of detail when using a relational database system for materials planning.

A comprehensive review of the literature for the problem of lot‐size scheduling (serial and assembly) considering the uncapacitated problem and complicated capacitated assembly manufacturing structure. Analyses the different solution techniques and findings for each product set.

This research provides a literature review in the field of uncertainty dampening methods for manufacturing systems, and proposes a new model to improve materials management effectiveness in materials requirements planning environments. The literature review gives rise to a classification framework of the models along nine structural dimensions that refer to the safety buffer treatment, the environmental characteristics and the type of approach. On the basis of the classification framework, the proposed model provides guidelines for approaching the problem of dimensioning, positioning and managing safety stocks against demand uncertainty. The effectiveness of the proposed model has been tested by comparing it to the traditional approach, through a computer‐based simulation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore tactical planning in grocery retailing and propose how process and integration mechanisms from sales and operations planning (S&OP) can enhance retail tactical planning.

This work follows an explorative design with case studies from the grocery retailing industry in Finland, Norway, and the UK.

The tactical planning process focuses on demand management and securing product availability from suppliers in order to reach sales targets. Less attention is directed toward balancing supply and demand or toward providing a single plan to guide company operations. Planning appeared to be functionally oriented with limited coordination between functional plans, but it did include external integration that improved forecast accuracy.

The study involves grocery retailer cases with variable levels of S&OP maturity. The propositions need to be investigated further through action research or additional case studies to confirm their validity.

The study proposes a design of an S&OP process in retailing and propositions for improving tactical planning integration.

The study complements research on retail tactical planning by taking planning process and integration viewpoints. The research suggests that retailers would benefit from a formal and company-wide S&OP process to unify different market-oriented plans to a single set of numbers, thus better balancing supply and demand without sacrificing the emphasis on demand planning.

This paper explores the operationalization of production network coordination – the production transfer (PT) – and the relationships between transfer risk sources, preventive actions, supply chain disruptions, corrective actions and losses to better understand how to mitigate the risk and achieve an effective transfer process.

A longitudinal field study of a PT process from Norway to Spain was studied in depth for 25 months.

The paper presents the implications of three areas of importance for PT success: (1) how the transfer influences the plant roles, (2) the cross-locational management of the transfer project at the sender and receiver and (3) whether adapting the transferred production to the receiver's environment is an enabler or an inhibitor of transfer success.

The findings about how to mitigate the transfer risk and the frameworks of risk sources, supply chain disruptions, losses and preventive and corrective actions, along with the examples from the in-depth study, can aid the practitioners in managing PTs and achieving the relocation goals.

This is one of the first studies of PT, which is from the perspective of both transfer parties, and addresses both preventive and corrective actions and all the transfer phases. Moreover, this study addresses the operational aspects of production network coordination, which received limited attention in earlier research.