Bottleneck Oriented Card-Based Production Control for Push Repetitive Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

One of the major problems of the push Repetitive Manufacturing Systems (RMS) is the Work In Process (WIP) buildups between the stations due to the push nature of the flow of material. Card-based pull or push-pull production control systems offered smooth production flow with reduced WIP. But, applying these systems to push production environment requires huge cost for major cultural and operational changes. We propose a solution to WIP buildups, without altering the basic structure of operation of the push production system. We propose a bottleneck oriented card-based production control system for push RMS. In our system parts release on the shop floor according to the customer demand whereas the material flow is constrained with the Production Authorization Cards (PAC). The PAC circulates between the first station and the bottleneck station in the form of a loop, reducing WIP buildups between the stations. We have conducted simulation based case studies to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.

Keywords

• repetitive manufacturing systems
• card-based production control
• work in process
• bottleneck
• buffer
• simulation