9. Conclusion

The customers buying preferences stimulate and inspire a new way of manufacturing. It has been a trend that the manufacturers are heading toward their ultimate goals of smart manufacturing. Many firms put the equipment automation as the first step of their smart manufacturing initiatives. But soon they found out that the current business challenge is on the uncertain market demand rather than just focusing on the operation automation. In addition, the smart manufacturing initiative is a sort of business reengineering process; it requires all participants to be aware in the problems in a holistic view. This is where this chapter would like to address.

In the smart manufacturing theme, the material planning is a challenging task under the uncertain demand environment. The task is not just the responsibility of the planner nor the data analyst but the synergy of all related participants. This chapter presents three material requisition models, for those materials having short lead times or being able to apply the pull model (vendor managed inventory, VMI), the fixed input model is adequate enough; for those materials having the same trend for a period of time, the variable input model can compensate the trend difference and prevent the excessive purchase; and for those volatile demand materials, the trend variable input model has the lowest inventory level than the others.

Finally, all proposed modes treat the loss ratio ω% as constant for easy to explain, and this ratio should be measured from the production. To manufacture smarter products nowadays, to create a healthy collaborative culture within the firm is above all to enhance the competence of data analysis, and to improve the information systems is the cornerstone of survival and the business success as well.
