Commonality in manufacturing resources planning – issues and models: a review

Purpose – The main purposes of this paper are to enhance the understanding of commonality models in manufacturing resource planning by documenting the current state of affairs and to stimulate fruitful future research by identifying gaps between the relevant issues and the available academic literature. Methodology – This paper is based on a comprehensive review of the articles from authentic publications on resources commonality for the various product mixes and the pertinent models. The papers are analysed to identify the current scenarios and draw future research directions in the area. Findings – The use of common components for different products in a company is important for managing product variety and maintaining competitiveness in this age of mass customisation and supply chain management struggles. The paper finds that the development of a mathematical model to study the effects of commonality in multistage systems with multiple products and multiple common items remains in the virgin area of research. Effects of uncertainty factors on the models are other issues not yet covered in the literature. Experiments and empirical studies in this gap also need further attention. Originality/Value – The contribution of this paper is to provide a summary of the current state of affairs in component commonality and its models and predict the future research trends. This review also focuses on the expanding and complex area of demand, which identifies the issues in the area. [Received 03 October 2008; Revised 27 December 2008; Revised 20 March 2009; Accepted 02 April 2009]