Operation and control of flow manufacturing based on constraints management for high-mix/low-volume production

The existing technology of flow manufacturing, which is mainly appropriate for high volume and repetitive production, is proven difficult to be applied in high-mix/low-volume environments. To adapt lean production into the latter, a new type of flow manufacturing is proposed based on flow path management technology. This paper first describes the general operation framework of the proposed new mode. The main idea is the dynamic formation of adaptable virtual production lines (called flow paths) corresponding to different product families. The application of different theories of constraints/drum-buffer-rope (TOC/DBR) control policies depends on the differences in scope of variety and scale of demand for these product families. The overall architecture of the proposed mechanism of constraint management-based operation and control is introduced. For the implementation, a mathematical programming method is suggested for the dynamic planning of flow paths, and a TOC/DBR ‘path-specific’ mechanism with group scheduling is used for the control over each flow path.We also study other critical issues including the identification and management of resource bottlenecks, and the setting of the buffer size in the deployment of the TOC/DBR mechanism.