Affiliations: Tennenbaum Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA, USA | School of Industrial & Systems Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Douglas A. Bodner, Tennenbaum Institute,
Georgia Institute of Technology, 760 Spring Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: In the past several decades, manufacturing has begun the process of
transforming from a production firm centric enterprise into one in which a lead
firm engages multiple partner and supplier firms in a networked enterprise to
produce complex systems and products. Inherent in this transformation is the
notion of global manufacturing as a socio-technical enterprise, co-emphasizing
socio-interaction among firms with the more traditional technical focus on
meeting production quotas, minimizing costs and maximizing profits. This
chapter presents the methodology of organizational simulation as applied to the
study and analysis of global manufacturing. Computer simulation has a rich
history of application in analyzing the behavior and performance of
manufacturing systems from a technical perspective, focusing on such concepts
as forecasted product demand, production capacities and lead times,
transportation capacities and lead times, inventory locations and levels, and
production schedules, as well uncertainties associated with these factors. This
perspective fails to consider socio-behaviors associated with firms and their
interactions. Organizational simulation is a new paradigm whereby technical
process modeling and social behavior modeling are combined to represent the
behavior and predict the performance of the socio-technical enterprise. It has
been applied in military acquisition, product design and health care. This
chapter presents its application in global manufacturing enterprises,
particularly to the issues of stakeholder alignment during change, alignment of
stakeholder expectations and allocation of limited shared resources.
