Handling the complexities of real-life job shops when implementing workload control: a decision framework and case study

Cransberg, Victor; Land, Martin; Hicks, C; Stevenson, Mark

doi:10.1080/00207543.2015.1047974

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In general, our study emphasizes that the need for transportation has a strong impact on the applicability of order release methods, such as Workload Control. This however is not discussed in studies that focus on assessing the applicability of Workload Control, such as those by Henrich et al (2004), Soepenberg et al (2012), andCransberg et al (2016). Hence, our findings extend the set of contingency factors that need to be considered when determining the applicability of order release control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Material handling and order release control in high-variety make-to-order shops: an assessment by simulation

Thürer

Stevenson

2021

Oper Manag Res

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In many real-life high-variety make-to-order shops, jobs are physically transported from one station to another, and transportation capacity may constrain order progress on the shop floor. Yet, the material handling literature on vehicle assignment rules remains largely inconclusive on which rule to apply, and it neglects order release control. Similarly, and despite the importance of material handling, its impact is widely neglected in the order release literature. In response, this study assesses the combined performance effect of vehicle assignment, order release and dispatching rules. It uses discrete event simulation. Results show that assigning a vehicle to the station with the largest outgoing queue leads to the best performance. This simple vehicle assignment rule has been largely neglected in the literature since the 1980s. In contrast, the two rules that have received the most attention in the literature -the shortest distance and first-come-first-served rules -lead to the worst performance. Meanwhile, order release has a direct detrimental performance effect in pure job shops with material handling constraints. This identifies an important contingency factor so far neglected in the literature that assesses the applicability of order release. More specifically, the use of order release should be restricted to general flow shops with more directed routings since, in these contexts, it can reduce throughput times without jeopardizing tardiness performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Material handling and order release control in high-variety make-to-order shops: an assessment by simulation

Thürer

Stevenson

2021

Oper Manag Res

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“…Wiendahl (1995) gathered early knowledge of load-oriented manufacturing control. In the WLC, the main requirement to control order waiting time and resource idleness is balancing loads among workstations (Cransberg et al, 2016). Low and stable WIP reduces variability in LT and increases dependability by increasing delivery reliability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workload Control and Order Dispatching Rules

Couto

Sellitto

2022

Period. Polytech. Soc. Man. Sci.

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The purpose of this study is to choose an order dispatching rule and measure the work-in-process and lead-time in the production process of a conveyor chain manufacturer. The main strategic issue for the manufacturer is dependability, which requires meeting deadlines and managing internal lead-times. The study integrates two techniques, workload control (WLC) and an analytical hierarchy process (AHP), respectively systems for production planning and control, and multi-criteria decision support, both widely used in handling manufacturing strategic issues. The research method is a field experiment. Supported by the AHP and according to strategic criteria, practitioners selected the early due date rule (the order with the closest due date comes first) to release 231 orders. Then, employing a methodology designed to support WLC applications, the study measured key parameters that provide information regarding the overall performance of the manufacturer, the input rate, work-in-process, lead-time, throughput performance, and the level of safety stock. Using the model and a graphical tool derived from queuing theory, the throughput diagram, the study provides evidence that, although the manufacturing process is satisfactorily balanced and achieves acceptable performance, the level of safety stock is small and should be increased to prevent starvation on the shop floor.

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“…Each production unit produces a large variety of part types in small batches, characterized by their own routing and sequenced tasks (Slomp et al, 2009). The existing literature on HVLV is focused on the improvement of operational efficiency (Adrodegari et al, 2015;Cransberg et al, 2016;Hendry et al, 2013), even using approaches often adopted in high volume and low variety mass markets (Thomassen and Alfnes, 2017). For instance, even it is a common misunderstanding that lean is suitable for mass production only, it has been proposed to guarantee flexible productions in high variety environment (Haider and Mirza, 2015;Slomp et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing And Optimizing Production In A High Variety / Low Volume Environment Through Data-Driven Simulation

Fani

Bindi

Bandinelli

2021

ECMS 2021 Proceedings Edited by Khalid Al-Begain, Mauro Iacono, Lelio Campanile, Andrzej Bargiela

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HVLV environments are characterized by high product variety and small lot production, pushing companies to recursively design and optimize their production systems in a very short time to reach high-level performance. To increase their competitiveness, companies belonging to these industries, often SMEs working as third parties, ask for decision-making tools to support them in a quick and reactive reconfiguration of their production lines. Traditional discrete event simulation models, widely studied in the literature to solve production-related issues, do not allow real-time support to business decisions in dynamic contexts, due to the time-consuming activities needed to re-align parameters to changing environments. Data-driven approach overcomes these limitations, giving the possibility to easily update input and quickly rebuild the model itself without any changes in the modeling code. The proposed data-driven simulation model has also been interfaced with a commonly-used BI tool to support companies in the iterative comparison of different scenarios to define the optimal resource allocation for the requested production plan. The simulation model has been implemented into a SME operating in the footwear industry, showing how this approach can be used by companies to increase their performance even without a specific knowledge in building and validating simulation models.

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Handling the complexities of real-life job shops when implementing workload control: a decision framework and case study

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

Material handling and order release control in high-variety make-to-order shops: an assessment by simulation

Material handling and order release control in high-variety make-to-order shops: an assessment by simulation

Workload Control and Order Dispatching Rules

Designing And Optimizing Production In A High Variety / Low Volume Environment Through Data-Driven Simulation

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