Non-hierarchical work-in-progress control in manufacturing

Reducing Work-In-Process (WIP) in manufacturing systems is associated with advantages such as predictable throughput times and increased manageability. To achieve this, an abundance of WIP control methods have been developed, CONWIP1 Kanban for repetitive manufacturing, LUMS COR2 POLCA3 high-variety manufacturing. These take three types decisions, viz., release (entry to the system), authorization a work centre) dispatching (order selection at centre). All existing are hierarchical by first deciding on before making thereby letting decision whether produce precede over which order produce. This hierarchy traditionally motivated uncertainty information between organizational levels, but this questionable given advent Industry 4.0 technologies. We develop non-hierarchical method – termed DRACO4 that simultaneously considers release, when deciding. The simulation results show DRACO significantly outperforms COR POLCA mean delivery performance measures. Additional analysis also indicates overall manageability improved DRACO.