ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT OF LEAD TIME FOR JOB SHOP UNDER MIXED PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Firstly an overview of the potential impact on work-in-process (WIP) and lead time is provided when transfer lot sizes are undifferentiated from processing lot sizes. Simple performance examples are compared to those from a shop with one-piece transfer lots. Next, a mathematical programming model for minimizing lead time in the mixed-model job shop is presented, in which one-piece transfer lots are used. Key factors affecting lead time are found by analyzing the sum of the longest setup time of individual items among the shared processes (SLST) and the longest processing time of individual items among processes (LPT). And lead time can be minimized by cutting down the SLST and LPT. Reduction of the SLST is described as a traveling salesman problem (TSP), and the minimum of the SLST is solved through job shop scheduling. Removing the bottleneck and leveling the production line optimize the LPT. If the number of items produced is small, the routings are relatively short, and items and facilities are changed infrequently, the optimal schedule will remain valid. Finally a brief example serves to illustrate the method.