From the beginning producers have strived for minimum production costs and improvements of the quality of their products. For that reason many production control systems have been developed, based on a forecast of the market demand. The broadening of the scope of products, combined with the increased market requirements on delivery time, delivery reliability and flexibility have led to production control systems based on current market demand, with simultaneous reduction of stocks. This approach is fully implemented in the Just in Time philosophy, combined with a high extent of fine tuning of the production process. The connected minimization of stocks requires a high degree of reliability of the total production process. This paper will investigate whether order based production and environment-friendly transport are contrary to each other. (A)
Samenvatting