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Lot Splitting in Unbalanced Production Systems *
Author(s) -
Ruben Robert A.,
Mahmoodi Farzad
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1998.tb00882.x
Subject(s) - bottleneck , scheduling (production processes) , computer science , batch production , production (economics) , variety (cybernetics) , flow shop scheduling , work in process , work (physics) , operations research , job shop scheduling , industrial engineering , mathematical optimization , operations management , schedule , economics , engineering , mathematics , microeconomics , mechanical engineering , embedded system , artificial intelligence , operating system
This research investigates the impact of lot splitting in unbalanced production systems, under a variety of experimental conditions. Scheduling policies specifically designed for use in the presence of a long‐term bottleneck, a condition frequently encountered in practice, are developed and tested. Results indicate that when steps are taken at nonbottleneck work centers to capitalize on capacity imbalances through increasing the number of setups and, hence, the variety of products produced, shop effectiveness is improved. The results also indicate that scheduling policies that tend to increase the size of the average process batch retard the overlapping of operations, which is critical to the success of the lot‐splitting methodology in reducing flow time. Finally, it is shown that increasing capacity at nonbottleneck work centers along with implementation of effectiveness‐oriented scheduling polices leads to improved shop performance.