Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 16/01/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2018.1425018
Accepted author manuscript, 1.05 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Centralised vs. decentralised control decision in card-based control systems
T2 - comparing kanban systems and COBACABANA
AU - Thurer, Matthias
AU - Fernandes, Nuno Octavio
AU - Stevenson, Mark
AU - Qu, Ting
AU - Li, Cong Dong
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 16/01/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2018.1425018
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Kanban systems are simple yet effective means of controlling production. Production control is decentralised or exercised locally on the shop floor, i.e. a downstream station signals to an upstream station that an item is needed. If items are always the same and known, then demands can be satisfied instantaneously from stock; but if items differ and are unknown, demands must first be propagated backwards from station to station before being satisfied. The former is defined as an inventory control problem and the latter as an order control problem. Handling the order control problem via kanban involves a decentralised card acquisition process (during which information is propagated from station to station) that is separated from the actual production process. COBACABANA (control of balance by card-based navigation), an alternative card-based solution, shares kanban’s control structure but centralises the card acquisition process. Evaluating the two systems therefore provides a unique opportunity to compare decentralised and centralised control. Using simulation, we demonstrate that it is specifically the centralised card acquisition process that allows COBACABANA to balance the workload across resources and thus to outperform kanban in an order control problem. This has major implications for research and practice.
AB - Kanban systems are simple yet effective means of controlling production. Production control is decentralised or exercised locally on the shop floor, i.e. a downstream station signals to an upstream station that an item is needed. If items are always the same and known, then demands can be satisfied instantaneously from stock; but if items differ and are unknown, demands must first be propagated backwards from station to station before being satisfied. The former is defined as an inventory control problem and the latter as an order control problem. Handling the order control problem via kanban involves a decentralised card acquisition process (during which information is propagated from station to station) that is separated from the actual production process. COBACABANA (control of balance by card-based navigation), an alternative card-based solution, shares kanban’s control structure but centralises the card acquisition process. Evaluating the two systems therefore provides a unique opportunity to compare decentralised and centralised control. Using simulation, we demonstrate that it is specifically the centralised card acquisition process that allows COBACABANA to balance the workload across resources and thus to outperform kanban in an order control problem. This has major implications for research and practice.
KW - Kanban
KW - Workload Control
KW - Order Release
KW - Shop Floor Control
KW - Simulation
U2 - 10.1080/00207543.2018.1425018
DO - 10.1080/00207543.2018.1425018
M3 - Journal article
VL - 57
SP - 322
EP - 337
JO - International Journal of Production Research
JF - International Journal of Production Research
SN - 0020-7543
IS - 2
ER -