Characteristics and study of make-to-stock and make-to-availability production strategy using simulation modelling

Make-To-Stock (MTS) and Make-To-Order (MTO) are the two traditional strategies in production management. In the case of the MTS there is a growing demand for a new approach, which is called Make-To-Availability (MTA) strategy. The paper characterizes and compares the MTS and MTA strategies. The comparative analysis based, among others, on computational experiments carried out in a computer program developed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Environment was presented. The models have been prepared for both strategies with the same assumptions: external conditions (market demand) and internal conditions (structure of the production process). The investigation of how the strategies respond to various scenarios of demand intensity was done. The simulation models were prepared and validated for the case of the production line in one of the industrial automation company. The research shows that the use of the MTA strategy in the majority of cases gives much better results than the use of the MTS strategy due to the minimization of storage costs and the costs of non-fulfillment of the customers’ demand. The directions for further research were also presented.