Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Production Economics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Production Economics. 174, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.01.005
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - On the integration of input and output control
T2 - workload control order release
AU - Thurer, Matthias
AU - Stevenson, Mark
AU - Land, Martin
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Production Economics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Production Economics. 174, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.01.005
PY - 2016/4
Y1 - 2016/4
N2 - Workload Control is a production planning and control concept developed for high-variety jobshops. It integrates two control mechanisms: (i) input control, to regulate the inflow of work tothe system; and (ii) output control, which uses capacity adjustments to regulate the outflow ofwork from the system. Much Workload Control research has focused on input control, whileoutput control has been largely neglected. Only recently has research emerged that usesWorkload Control theory to guide capacity adjustments. Yet this literature focuses on capacityadjustments (output control) only – it fails to integrate it with Workload Control’s input controlelement. In response, this study explores the performance impact of Workload Control wheninput control (controlled order release) and output control (capacity adjustments) are combined.Job shop simulation results demonstrate that input and output control can and should playcomplementary roles. Both elements significantly enhance performance in isolation, andperformance effects appear to complement each other. Further, results indicate that the choice ofthe workload threshold that triggers capacity adjustments has a stronger impact on performancethan the actual size of the adjustment. The measure of workload used to guide the load-basedorder release decision is also used to determine the workload threshold that triggers the capacityadjustment. This facilitates implementation in practice. Finally, although our study is onWorkload Control, the findings have important implications for other production planning andcontrol concepts.
AB - Workload Control is a production planning and control concept developed for high-variety jobshops. It integrates two control mechanisms: (i) input control, to regulate the inflow of work tothe system; and (ii) output control, which uses capacity adjustments to regulate the outflow ofwork from the system. Much Workload Control research has focused on input control, whileoutput control has been largely neglected. Only recently has research emerged that usesWorkload Control theory to guide capacity adjustments. Yet this literature focuses on capacityadjustments (output control) only – it fails to integrate it with Workload Control’s input controlelement. In response, this study explores the performance impact of Workload Control wheninput control (controlled order release) and output control (capacity adjustments) are combined.Job shop simulation results demonstrate that input and output control can and should playcomplementary roles. Both elements significantly enhance performance in isolation, andperformance effects appear to complement each other. Further, results indicate that the choice ofthe workload threshold that triggers capacity adjustments has a stronger impact on performancethan the actual size of the adjustment. The measure of workload used to guide the load-basedorder release decision is also used to determine the workload threshold that triggers the capacityadjustment. This facilitates implementation in practice. Finally, although our study is onWorkload Control, the findings have important implications for other production planning andcontrol concepts.
KW - Order release
KW - Capacity adjustments
KW - Input/Output Control
KW - Workload Control
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.01.005
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.01.005
M3 - Journal article
VL - 174
SP - 43
EP - 53
JO - International Journal of Production Economics
JF - International Journal of Production Economics
SN - 0925-5273
ER -