Multi-Criteria Decision Support Tool (MCDS) to Resolve Alternate Supplier Implementation Delays for Engineering Cost Reduction Programs
Open AccessPost-World War II, most manufacturing companies depended on unit cost reduction as its primary operations strategy using mass production methods. Product Development tended to be slow with little attention to product and process flexibility. However, with the changing landscape of globalization and increased competitiveness for low cost – good quality products, more modern management and manufacturing philosophies emerged such as Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VA/VE), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and ultimately, Engineering Cost Reduction (ECR). ECR, a subset of Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VA/VE), involves performing Engineering Qualification and Project Management activities for a component/sub-system with an Alternate Supplier, at a reduced cost with improved performance and quality. The focus of this research is to provide context into the root causes of Alternate Supplier Implementation Delays (ASID) that threaten on-time implementation in a manufacturing environment and erode cost savings for ECR Programs. On-time implementation of Alternate Suppliers is very important to ECR Projects because with each month the implementation is delayed, cost savings erode. The Multi-Criteria Decision Support Tool (MCDS) will improve decision making regardless of the cause of delay or its uncertainty throughout the Product Development Process (PDP). Acceptable opportunity values will be used to analyze and validate the effectiveness of the tool, while empowering Engineering Managers to improve project prioritization, resource allocation, mitigation response, project value, and alternate supplier implementation timing.
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