Sx. Bai et Sb. Gershwin, SCHEDULING MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS WITH WORK-IN-PROCESS INVENTORY CONTROL - SINGLE-PART-TYPE SYSTEMS, IIE transactions, 27(5), 1995, pp. 599-617
Citations number
44
Categorie Soggetti
Operatione Research & Management Science","Engineering, Industrial
A real-time algorithm is developed for scheduling single-part-type pro
duction lines with work-in-process inventory buffers. We consider thre
e classes of activities: operations, failures and repairs, and starvat
ion and blockage. The scheduling objectives are to keep the actual pro
duction close to the demand, the work-in-process (WIP) inventory level
low, and the cycle time short. A three-level hierarchical controller
is constructed to regulate the production. At the top level, we determ
ine the desirable buffer sizes and the target production level for eac
h operation. At the middle level is a production flow rate controller
that recalculates the production rates whenever a machine fails or is
starved or blocked. The loading times for individual parts are determi
ned at the bottom level of the hierarchy. The production scheduling al
gorithm is evaluated by using computer simulations for a variety of ca
ses. Compared with a transfer line policy, a significant improvement i
n system performance is observed.