Decision Making in Support of Manufacturing Enterprise Transformation

To achieve the agility necessary to compete successfully in everchanging world markets, manufacturing enterprises of all sizes must exhibit a transformational leadership. Strategic, tactical, and operational decision making is an essential part of such leadership. The papers in this special issue seek to understand and characterize common transformational decision-making needs in manufacturing enterprises and the state of art in decision-making methods and technologies. Additionally, these papers identify gaps in those methods and technologies and propose research can fill those gaps. In the paper titled “The integrated use of enterprise and system dynamics modelling techniques in support of business decisions” the authors use case studies to describe a new modelling methodology for analysing and managing dynamics and complexities in production systems. This methodology is based on a systematic transformation process that integrates enterprise, causal loop (CL), and system dynamics (SDs) modelling techniques. The methodology relies on the creation of CIMOSA process models, which are then converted to CL models. CL models are then structured and translated into equivalent SD models. The authors have used their methodology in a number of case study companies to (1) capture business processes, (2) model the dynamics impacting those processes, (3) analyse the impact of variations in customer demand on value realization, and (4) analyse the effect of constant sales orders on material supply, cost, and product realisation. In the paper titled “Performance assessment of product service system from system architecture perspectives” the author focuses on a concept called Product Service System (PSS). The PSS enables the manufacturers of complex engineering products to incorporate support services into the entire product life cycle. However, the PSS design has imposed significant risks to the manufacturer not only in the manufacture of the product itself, but also in the provision of support services over a long period of time at a predetermined price. This paper analysed three case studies using case study research design approach and mapped the service elements of the case studies to the generic Complex Engineering Product Service System (CEPSS) model. By establishing the concept of capability distribution for a PSS enterprise, the capability of the CEPSS can be overlaid on the performance-based reward scheme so that decision makers evaluate options related to the business opportunities presented to them. In the paper titled “Evaluating ethical responsibility