Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present a method for calculating the lead-time, the inventory, and the safety stock or buffer in job shop manufacturing, which are essentially stochastic variables. The research method is quantitative modelling. The theoretical foundation of the method relies on the techniques belonging to the WLC (workload control) body of knowledge on the manufacturing management. The study includes an application of the method in a manufacturing plant of the furniture industry, whose operation strategy requires high dependability. The company operates in a supply chain and must have high a reliability in deliveries. Adequate safety stocks, lead times, and inventory levels provide the protection against the lack of reliability in the deliveries. The inventory should remain within a certain range, being as small as possible to maintain low lead times, but not too small that it could provoke a starvation, configuring an optimization problem. The study offers guidelines for a complete application in industries. Further research shall include the influence of the variability of the lot size in the stochastic variables.
Highlights
Workload Control (WLC) is a production planning and control technique suitable for high-variety job shop manufacturing [1] and focused mainly on Make-toOrder (MTO) production [2]
The purpose of this article is to present a method for calculating the lead-time, the inventory, and the safety stock in a job shop MTO manufacturing
The mean order LT and mean part LT are close (10.9 and 11.4 days respectively), but not equal due to the variability in the order size (μ = 37.4, σ = 18.4 sets). To cope with this uncertainty, the model creates the bivariate stochastic variable LT i Qi, without a direct physical meaning that represents the use of the manufacturing system by an order
Summary
Workload Control (WLC) is a production planning and control technique suitable for high-variety job shop manufacturing [1] and focused mainly on Make-toOrder (MTO) production [2]. The WLC integrates two control mechanisms, the input and the output control. The input control regulates the income of workload into the manufacturing system by priority rules. The output control regulates the outcome of the orders by adjustments in the production capacity. The extant literature considers the load-based order release as the main input control technique and adding or removing equipment and workforce as the main output control technique [1]. The dependent variable is the lead-time, the time between the arrival and the completion of an order, controlled by the work-in-process inventory, the orders waiting for service. Small inventories decrease the time an order waits for service, decreasing the lead-time
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