Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Spring 5-31-2000

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

First Advisor

Layek Abdel-Malek

Second Advisor

Carl Wolf

Third Advisor

Sanchoy K. Das

Abstract

The use of computers and Information Technology enables manufacturers, especially small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to improve productivity and increase manufactuning flexibility. Telemanufactuning or manufacturing in virtual environment is one of the infrastructures that facilitate the use of information superhighways and computer technology to attain these goals. Broadly defined, Telemanufactuning is the utilization of services accessed via communication networks and across information superhighways to perform in real time, operations and processes essential to the design and production of items. It can be a key enabler for decentralized manufacturing using global resources and expert design teams. In addition to updating several of the existing modules of the Telemanufacturing infrastructure developed earlier, in this work an Electronic Outsourcing Decision Support System (DSS) is developed to aid manufacturers in establishing first cut outsourcing policies. The development of this DSS is motivated by the increasing use of outsourcing in businesses today to accomplish improvements in critical success factors such as quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, time to market, and to focus on one's core competencies. The salient features of the DSS are cost analysis and engineening economy procedures to aid users in Telemanufactuning decisions as well as for appraising the value of capital investment alternatives. Further, the user-friendly environment inherent to the DSS makes analytical decision making simpler.

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