Operations Management
Individual post-assignment
Impact of different dimensions of variability
for the case about Flexibility and Service
Levels in Production Systems
In order to discuss the impact of the different dimensions of the variability for the case about
Flexibility and Service Levels in Production Systems we need to place the case into the
variability cube and subsequently consider isolated changes in the variability dimensions.
Since the demand is given for the whole planning horizon, there is no uncertainty with regard
to the demand. In the case there are no assumptions about uncertainty in the planning process,
we can therefore say that in the uncertainty dimension the value for the case is
“deterministic”. Given that the demand fluctuates over time, i.e. it varies within the planning
horizon, the value of the dynamics dimension for the case is “time-dependent”. Finally, the
case explicitly says that the demand is aggregated into one group, which implies that there is
no diversity in the manufacturing process, the value of the respective dimension within the
cube is “homogeneous”.
In the following, isolated changes of the three dimensions will be discussed with the position
of the case being the base. Combination of changes are not part of the discussion.
We begin the consideration of isolated changes in the dimensions of the cube with the
simplest case: change the dynamics from time-dependent to stationary. We interpret
stationarity to mean constant demand over time, i.e. same demand in each period of the
