Performance measurement system for robustness improvements in paced production lines

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There exist numerous disturbances that can affect current dynamic production systems. Especially in interlinked production systems the disturbances lead to significant performance decreases. Therefore, the given research proposal aims at increasing the robustness of interlinked production systems. As in control loops, the robustness must first be measured and evaluated before improvement actions can be identified. Measuring and evaluating the robustness is the main challenge of this proposal. A brief example illustrates this challenge: Robustness shall be measured by the output produced by the interlinked system. In order to increase the systems robustness, large buffers can be implemented in the system. Thus, the output will not decrease if the disruption faced is shorter than the given buffer will last. The bigger the buffers are, the higher the robustness will be. Infinite buffers would be desirable for improving robustness. But big buffers also lead to very long lead times. The improvement in output produced led to a deterioration of the throughput time. If these relationships are not taken into account when choosing the robustness measure, undesirable side effects arise. The robustness measure therefore must be able to detect and take into account all possible effects. This requirement cannot be satisfied by the contemplation of a single key performance indicator (KPI). Therefore, to measure and assess the robustness of interlinked production systems the research proposal identifies a system of KPIs. The performance measurement system is then aggregated in a single measure of robustness. Based on the robustness measurement and evaluation process the identification of improvements takes place. For the various identified improvement actions, the best according to cost and robustness aspects is selected.