Placement of effective work-in-progress limits in route-specific unit-based pull systems |
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Authors: | N Ziengs J Riezebos R Germs |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Operations , University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands n.ziengs@rug.nl;3. Department of Operations , University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Unit-based pull systems control the throughput time of orders in a production system by limiting the number of orders on the shop floor. In production systems where orders can follow different routings on the shop floor, route-specific pull systems that control the progress of orders on the shop floor by placing limits on the number of orders in (parts of) a routing, have shown to be effective in controlling throughput times. This is because route-specific pull systems are able to create a balanced distribution of the amount of work on the shop floor, which leads to shorter and more reliable throughput times. The placement of limits on work-in-progress in a route-specific pull system determines to a large extent the workload balancing capability of such a system. This paper shows how the placement of work-in-progress limits affects the workload balancing capability and thereby the throughput time performance of a route-specific unit-based pull system, namely POLCA. |
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Keywords: | unit-based pull systems route-specific workload balancing capability POLCA |
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