1. Introduction
In the global marketplace of today, there has been a large growth in the number of enterprises that operate in the MTO sector (Stevenson et al., 2005). For manufacturing enterprises to stay competitive in this global marketplace, manufacturing strategies have to be focused on achieving short delivery times, on time deliveries and flexibility to meet customer requirements.
Workload control (WLC) is a production planning and control (PPC) concept specifically designed for complex manufacturing environments, with particular relevance to the make-to-order (MTO) sector and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Its main principle is to keep the length of queues on the shop floor at appropriate levels to meet the promised deliver dates, taking into account the system capacity and capabilities. If these queues are kept short and stable, then waiting times and therefore flow times will be firmly controlled and reliable. It is possible to identify three hierarchical levels, related with stages in the order flow, at which the control of these queues can be attempted, namely order entry, order release and priority dispatching (Breithaupt et al., 2002). At each level, a decision must be made relatively to the orders allowed to proceed to the next stage and whether this requires capacity adjustments.
Order release is described as an essential decision function and a core parte of WLC (Missbauer, 2009). It occurs when orders (jobs) are released into the shop floor for processing. The concept behind controlled release is to release orders selectively, at the right moments in time, to improve shop performance. An order release mechanism is used, in combination with a pre-shop pool, to determine the moment and the orders to release into the shop floor. Releasing a set of orders is only feasible if it does not violate workload norms. Therefore, the orders generated by the planning system or arriving directly from customers over time are gathered in the pre-shop pool and are only released if they fit workload norms, usually defined in hours of work, of the required capacity groups (e.g. work centres) by the order’s routing. This means that the decision to release an order is based on its influence to the current shop floor situation. It is also based on the urgency of the order, i.e. orders are considered for release accordingly to a planned sequence.
Within WLC, releases may take place at periodic, i.e. discrete time intervals (e.g. at the beginning of each working shift, day or week), or on a continuous basis, i.e. at any time during the system’s operation.
Discrete order release is based on periodic observations of workload in the shop floor. At fixed periods of time, workload on the shop floor is computed, and the decision to release orders is taken. When the orders are released periodically, release mechanisms need the specification of a release period. The length of this period must be less than the smallest slack of the orders in the pool, for avoiding orders’ lateness. Past research (e.g. Land, 2006) has shown, however, that the choice of an appropriate period between releases is a delicate decision, greatly influencing shop performance and that, non-periodic, i.e. continuous, release methods should be emphasized within future research. A long release period may unnecessarily delay orders in the pool (and eventually increase the time they spend in the entire system) and creates a higher risk of resources starvation. A short release period, on the other hand, may hinder the release of orders that could contribute to stable workloads and of orders with high processing content and long routings, negatively affecting the timing of release. The reduced costs of feedback information and the greater simplicity of discrete order release are the most likely explanations for its use by practitioners and most researchers (Bergamaschi et al., 1997).
Continuous order release is based on the continuous monitor- ing of workload in the shop floor in order to detect, when workload in every capacity group falls below its norm. Whenever this happens, order release is evaluated for all orders available in the pool. This continuous monitoring and evaluation process, when compared with periodic release, may increase the effort required to manage the pre-shop pool and the order release activities. However, it has the advantage of leading to a continuous updating of the shop floor control situation with improved smoothing and stabilization of workload at capacity groups.
Most of the past research on the WLC concept has been essentially focused on discrete order release mechanisms (e.g. Oosterman et al., 2000; Kingsman and Hendry, 2002; Cigolini and Portioli, 2002; Land, 2006; Henrich et al., 2007). Exceptions, include Land and Gaalman (1998), Sabuncuoglu and Karapinar (1999), the Generic POLCA mechanism (Fernandes and Carmo- Silva, 2006) and Ebadian et al. (2009). Recently, Stevenson and Silva (2008) reported refinements made to a particular WLC methodology, the LUMS approach, in two independent empirical research projects undertaken in Portugal and in the UK. In both projects, order release typically takes place daily (or even once a shift) rather than weekly (as proposed in the original methodol- ogy). This is an important approximation to continuous order release.
Continuous order release is expected to shorten delivery times and the percentage of tardy jobs (orders), therefore, is in line with the current competitive manufacturing environment, where enterprises have to be focused on speed of response to customer requirements. This expectation emerges from the continuous reviewing of orders for releasing, potentially leading to an important reduction of the time during which orders will remain in the pool before being released into the shop floor. Therefore, applying continuous release may be a strategy of widespread application that is likely to be required in future implementations of the WLC approach to production control, as also noted by Stevenson and Silva (2008).
Based on these expectations, a simulation study of the performance of three WLC strategies under continuous order release, in a job-shop environment, was carried out and here presented. The study aims at improving the basis for setting workload norms, selecting the workload control strategy and deciding upon routing alternatives. In particular, answer to the following questions is sought:
1. Introduction
In the global marketplace of today, there has been a large growth in the number of enterprises that operate in the MTO sector (Stevenson et al., 2005). For manufacturing enterprises to stay competitive in this global marketplace, manufacturing strategies have to be focused on achieving short delivery times, on time deliveries and flexibility to meet customer requirements.
Workload control (WLC) is a production planning and control (PPC) concept specifically designed for complex manufacturing environments, with particular relevance to the make-to-order (MTO) sector and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Its main principle is to keep the length of queues on the shop floor at appropriate levels to meet the promised deliver dates, taking into account the system capacity and capabilities. If these queues are kept short and stable, then waiting times and therefore flow times will be firmly controlled and reliable. It is possible to identify three hierarchical levels, related with stages in the order flow, at which the control of these queues can be attempted, namely order entry, order release and priority dispatching (Breithaupt et al., 2002). At each level, a decision must be made relatively to the orders allowed to proceed to the next stage and whether this requires capacity adjustments.
Order release is described as an essential decision function and a core parte of WLC (Missbauer, 2009). It occurs when orders (jobs) are released into the shop floor for processing. The concept behind controlled release is to release orders selectively, at the right moments in time, to improve shop performance. An order release mechanism is used, in combination with a pre-shop pool, to determine the moment and the orders to release into the shop floor. Releasing a set of orders is only feasible if it does not violate workload norms. Therefore, the orders generated by the planning system or arriving directly from customers over time are gathered in the pre-shop pool and are only released if they fit workload norms, usually defined in hours of work, of the required capacity groups (e.g. work centres) by the order’s routing. This means that the decision to release an order is based on its influence to the current shop floor situation. It is also based on the urgency of the order, i.e. orders are considered for release accordingly to a planned sequence.
Within WLC, releases may take place at periodic, i.e. discrete time intervals (e.g. at the beginning of each working shift, day or week), or on a continuous basis, i.e. at any time during the system’s operation.
Discrete order release is based on periodic observations of workload in the shop floor. At fixed periods of time, workload on the shop floor is computed, and the decision to release orders is taken. When the orders are released periodically, release mechanisms need the specification of a release period. The length of this period must be less than the smallest slack of the orders in the pool, for avoiding orders’ lateness. Past research (e.g. Land, 2006) has shown, however, that the choice of an appropriate period between releases is a delicate decision, greatly influencing shop performance and that, non-periodic, i.e. continuous, release methods should be emphasized within future research. A long release period may unnecessarily delay orders in the pool (and eventually increase the time they spend in the entire system) and creates a higher risk of resources starvation. A short release period, on the other hand, may hinder the release of orders that could contribute to stable workloads and of orders with high processing content and long routings, negatively affecting the timing of release. The reduced costs of feedback information and the greater simplicity of discrete order release are the most likely explanations for its use by practitioners and most researchers (Bergamaschi et al., 1997).
Continuous order release is based on the continuous monitor- ing of workload in the shop floor in order to detect, when workload in every capacity group falls below its norm. Whenever this happens, order release is evaluated for all orders available in the pool. This continuous monitoring and evaluation process, when compared with periodic release, may increase the effort required to manage the pre-shop pool and the order release activities. However, it has the advantage of leading to a continuous updating of the shop floor control situation with improved smoothing and stabilization of workload at capacity groups.
Most of the past research on the WLC concept has been essentially focused on discrete order release mechanisms (e.g. Oosterman et al., 2000; Kingsman and Hendry, 2002; Cigolini and Portioli, 2002; Land, 2006; Henrich et al., 2007). Exceptions, include Land and Gaalman (1998), Sabuncuoglu and Karapinar (1999), the Generic POLCA mechanism (Fernandes and Carmo- Silva, 2006) and Ebadian et al. (2009). Recently, Stevenson and Silva (2008) reported refinements made to a particular WLC methodology, the LUMS approach, in two independent empirical research projects undertaken in Portugal and in the UK. In both projects, order release typically takes place daily (or even once a shift) rather than weekly (as proposed in the original methodol- ogy). This is an important approximation to continuous order release.
Continuous order release is expected to shorten delivery times and the percentage of tardy jobs (orders), therefore, is in line with the current competitive manufacturing environment, where enterprises have to be focused on speed of response to customer requirements. This expectation emerges from the continuous reviewing of orders for releasing, potentially leading to an important reduction of the time during which orders will remain in the pool before being released into the shop floor. Therefore, applying continuous release may be a strategy of widespread application that is likely to be required in future implementations of the WLC approach to production control, as also noted by Stevenson and Silva (2008).
Based on these expectations, a simulation study of the performance of three WLC strategies under continuous order release, in a job-shop environment, was carried out and here presented. The study aims at improving the basis for setting workload norms, selecting the workload control strategy and deciding upon routing alternatives. In particular, answer to the following questions is sought:
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