ABSTRACT
Due to tough global market competition, manufacturers must produce products effectively to receive high customer satisfaction. To achieve this, they must produce a variety of products to meet the expectations of different segments of the market. The investment cost is high to update existing production facilities and other development activities in addition to a high operating cost. On the other hand, manufacturers need to meet certain objectives like minimizing the product cost, maximizing the product quality, or a combination of both or other objectives to compete with other products in the global market. The current requirements are to utilize resources, such as manpower, raw materials, and equipment, effectively and efficiently, to improve their performance. A need exists to optimize all the manufacturing functions.
