The order processing strategy has a direct and indirect influence on various economic and logistical objectives of manufacturing companies. In the literature, the choice of order processing strategy has been intensively discussed over the last decades. However, the approaches differ strongly regarding the applied methods and the set focal points. There are no rules for defining the decision criteria. As a result, the comparability is low and the results are primarily only recommendations regarding the optimization of one or a few objectives. Given the high time pressure in industrial practice, companies tend to base the decision of the order processing strategy on a few qualitative criteria or on the experience of long-time employees. For simplification, numerous assumptions are made and decision-relevant criteria are neglected. Furthermore, a decision once made is hardly ever questioned. Especially in the context of increasing uncertainty and high change dynamics, an effective determination of the order processing strategy as well as a continuous review is required. Consequently, a scientifically grounded approach, which can be carried out independently by manufacturing companies with a reasonable amount of effort, is required. For the two basic order processing strategies, Make-to-Stock and Make-to-Order, as well as hybrid forms and sub strategies in between these strategies, a systematic analysis based on quantitative data was developed in the present study. Logistic models served as a starting point for the mathematical modeling of the effect of different order processing strategies on the economic and logistic objectives. In academia and industrial practice established models were selected, combined and mathematically linked to the order processing strategy. Afterwards, the developed model was transferred into a software demonstrator. Using real data sets from industrial practice, the essential qualitative and quantitative drivers for the decision on the order processing strategy were derived. While the delivery time required by the customer and the maximum shelf life acted as boundary conditions, the costs during the order fulfillment process and the structure of the customer orders served as indicators for an initial evaluation regarding the suitability of the order processing strategy.weiterlesen