Robustness analysis of pull strategies in multi-product systems
Abstract: This paper examines
the behaviour of shared and dedicated Kanban allocation policies of Hybrid
Kanban-CONWIP and Basestock-Kanban-CONWIP control strategies in multi-product
systems; with considerations to robustness of optimal solutions to
environmental and system variabilities.
Design/methodology/approach: Discrete event simulation and evolutionary
multi-objective optimisation approach were utilised to develop Pareto-frontier
or sets of non-dominated optimal solutions and for selection of an appropriate
decision set for the control parameters in the shared Kanban allocation policy
(S-KAP) and dedicated Kanban allocation policy (D-KAP). Simulation experiments
were carried out via ExtendSim simulation application software. The outcomes of
PCS+KAP performances were compared via all pairwise comparison and Nelson’s
screening and selection procedure for superior PCS+KAP under negligible
environmental and system stability. To determine superior PCS+KAP under
systems’ and environmental variability, the optimal solutions were tested for
robustness using Latin hypercube sampling technique and stochastic dominance
test.
Findings: The outcome of this study shows that under uncontrollable
environmental variability, dedicated Kanban allocation policy outperformed
shared Kanban allocation policy in serial manufacturing system with negligible
and in complex assembly line with setup times. Moreover, the BK-CONWIP is shown
as superior strategy to HK-CONWIP.
Research limitations/implications: Future research should be conducted to
verify the level of flexibility of BK-CONWIP with respect to product mix and
product demand volume variations in a complex multi-product system
Practical implications: The outcomes of this work are applicable to
multi-product manufacturing industries with significant setup times and systems
with negligible setup times. The multi-objective optimisation provides decision
support for selection of control-parameters such that operations personnel
could easily change parameter settings to achieve a new service level without
additional optimisations of the system parameters.
Originality/value: The examination of the behaviour of the two Kanban
allocation policies in HK-CONWIP and BK-CONWIP in a complex multi-product
assembly line with setup-times and environmental variabilities, under erratic
demand profiles.
Keywords: Multi-product
systems, production control strategies, production authorisation cards,
multi-objective optimisation, erratic demand, robustness analysis
Author: Chukwunonyelum
Emmanuel Onyeocha, Joseph Khoury, John Geraghty
Journal Code: jptindustrigg150067
