Controlled order release: a performance assessment in job shops with sequence-dependent set-up times

Abstract

Findings from recent implementations of Workload Control (WLC) have called for research to investigate how sequence-dependent set-up times can best be handled within the design of the concept. In response, this study assesses the performance of four of the best-performing release methods from the literature in a job shop with sequence-dependent set-up times by simulation. First, the four methods are compared without considering set-up requirements at release. Second, the methods are refined to consider set-up requirements before being compared against the original methods. A release method that combines continuous and periodic release emerges as the best-performing method. Findings further suggest that considering set-up requirements at release do not have a significant positive effect on performance and may even be counterproductive: conflicting goals between the selection rules employed at release and dispatching may lead to an increase in the percentage of tardy jobs. Future research should consider whether the results hold if set-up times are not distributed equally across job types and work centres.