Customer order decoupling point issues in a project environment
Abstract
Nowadays, one of the most dynamically developing knowledge areas is the one of Project Management (PM) – both in the fields of Business and Public Administration. This is truth, partially because of constantly increasing customization of products and services, and the way to successfully cope with fulfilling customer orders, no matter if they are individual, industrial, or government ones. The key is the usage of Project Management tools and methods. On the other hand, the concept of Customer Order Decoupling Point (CODP) is a popular approach to increasing the diversity of end items, while taking advantage of standardization due to increased repetitiveness of operations devoted to producing components and/or subassemblies. It is widely used in Operations Management, but it could also be applied on a “secondary” level during the process of project implementation, and thus an increased customer customization could be achieved. In the present paper, the usage of methods and techniques such as Design Structure Matrix (DSM), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and others is discussed in a model developing, which helps in defining places throughout the project implementation process the interaction with the customer is to be realized, while avoiding undesirable violations in the project workflow.
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