Design of Multi-stage Production System Robust to Variance

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research considers a method for utilizing multitasking workers (MTWs) in multistage production processes. In designing a production system, it is important to raise productivity by using workers and production facilities effectively. However, the variation in operation time and the unbalanced workloads generally decreases the system's performance. This study proposes a MTW assignment rule in which the MTW is shifted to the previous station of the minimum workload, using a time-buffer. It is clarified that the MTW can absorb the variation in operation time and the unbalanced workloads effectively.A flow-control system incorporating the concept of time buffer was proposed recently. It differs from the Kanban system in that a time-buffer system evaluates work-in-process (WIP) using the remaining processing time; however, these systems do not use all the inventory information in multistage production processes. That is, a production instruction is issued when the inventory is in a specific state. The performance of the flow-control system improves depending on the various states of inventories. In this study, we designed an optimal flow-control system that utilizes all the available inventory information in multistage production processes. Detailed flow control is achieved by treating the state space of WIP as a control domain of the inventory.