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    Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 02/03/2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2016.1156182

    Accepted author manuscript, 581 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Workload control in job shops with re-entrant flows: an assessment by simulation

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>07/2016
<mark>Journal</mark>International Journal of Production Research
Issue number17
Volume54
Number of pages15
Pages (from-to)5136-5150
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date2/03/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

One of the key functions of Workload Control is order release. Jobs are not released immediately onto the shop floor – they are withheld and selectively released to create a mix of jobs that keeps work-in-process within limits and meet due dates. A recent implementation of Workload Control’s release method highlighted an important issue thus far overlooked by research: How to accommodate re-entrant flows, whereby a station is visited multiple times by the same job? We present the first study to compare the performance of Workload Control both with and without re-entrant flows. Simulation results from a job shop model highlight two important aspects: (i) re-entrant flows increase variability in the work arriving at a station, leading to a direct detrimental effect on performance; (ii) re-entrant flows affect the release decision-making process since the load contribution of all visits by a job to a station has to fit within the norm. Both aspects have implications for practice and our interpretation of previous research since: (i) parameters given for work arriving may significantly differ from those realised; (ii) increased workload contributions at release mean that prior simulations may have been unstable, leading to some jobs never being released.

Bibliographic note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 02/03/2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2016.1156182