Application of lean scheduling and production control in non-repetitive manufacturing systems using intelligent agent decision support

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Lean Manufacturing (LM) is widely accepted as a world-class manufacturing paradigm, its currency and superiority are manifested in numerous recent success stories. Most lean tools including Just-in-Time (JIT) were designed for repetitive serial production systems. This resulted in a substantial stream of research which dismissed a priori the suitability of LM for non-repetitive non-serial job-shops. The extension of LM into non-repetitive production systems is opposed on the basis of the sheer complexity of applying JIT pull production control in non-repetitive systems fabricating a high variety of products. However, the application of LM in job-shops is not unexplored. Studies proposing the extension of leanness into non-repetitive production systems have promoted the modification of pull control mechanisms or reconfiguration of job-shops into cellular manufacturing systems. This thesis sought to address the shortcomings of the aforementioned approaches. The contribution of this thesis to knowledge in the field of production and operations management is threefold: Firstly, a Multi-Agent System (MAS) is designed to directly apply pull production control to a good approximation of a real-life job-shop. The scale and complexity of the developed MAS prove that the application of pull production control in non-repetitive manufacturing systems is challenging, perplex and laborious. Secondly, the thesis examines three pull production control mechanisms namely, Kanban, Base Stock and Constant Work-in-Process (CONWIP) which it enhances so as to prevent system deadlocks, an issue largely unaddressed in the relevant literature. Having successfully tested the transferability of pull production control to non-repetitive manufacturing, the third contribution of this thesis is that it uses experimental and empirical data to examine the impact of pull production control on job-shop performance. The thesis identifies issues resulting from the application of pull control in job-shops which have implications for industry practice and concludes by outlining further research that can be undertaken in this direction

Standardized development of computer software. Part 1: Methods

This work is a two-volume set on standards for modern software engineering methodology. This volume presents a tutorial and practical guide to the efficient development of reliable computer software, a unified and coordinated discipline for design, coding, testing, documentation, and project organization and management. The aim of the monograph is to provide formal disciplines for increasing the probability of securing software that is characterized by high degrees of initial correctness, readability, and maintainability, and to promote practices which aid in the consistent and orderly development of a total software system within schedule and budgetary constraints. These disciplines are set forth as a set of rules to be applied during software development to drastically reduce the time traditionally spent in debugging, to increase documentation quality, to foster understandability among those who must come in contact with it, and to facilitate operations and alterations of the program as requirements on the program environment change

A methodology for scheduling jobs in a flexible flowshop with sequence dependent setup times and machine skipping

A flexible flowshop, comprised of one or more stages having unrelated parallel machines, is investigated in this research. Unrelated parallel machines can perform the same function but have different capacity or capability. Since this problem is motivated by industry research, dynamic job release times and dynamic machine availability times have been considered. Each job considered in this research can have different weight and due date. Sequence-dependent setup times of jobs further add to the complexity of the research. Machine skipping is yet another innate feature of this research that allows jobs to skip one or more stages depending upon customer's demand or budgetary constraints. The objective of this research is to minimize the sum of the weighted tardiness of all jobs released within the planning horizon. The research problem is modeled as a mixed (binary) integer-linear programming model and is shown to be strictly NP-hard. Being strongly NP-hard, industry size problems cannot be solved using an implicit enumeration technique within a reasonable computation time. Cognizant of the challenges in solving industry-size problems, we use the tabu-search-based heuristic solution algorithm to find optimal/near optimal solutions. Five different initial solution finding mechanisms, based on dispatching rules, have been developed, to initiate the search. The five initial solution finding mechanisms (IS1-IS5) have been used in conjunction with the six tabu-search-based heuristics (TS1-TS6) to solve the problems in an effective and efficient manner. The applicability of the search algorithm on an example problem has been demonstrated. The tabu-search based heuristics are tested on seven small problems and the quality of their solutions is compared to the optimal solutions obtained by the branch-and-bound technique. The evaluations show that the tabu-search based heuristics are capable of obtaining solutions of good quality within a much shorter computation time. The best performer among these heuristics recorded a percentage deviation of only 2.19%. The performance of the tabu-search based heuristics is compared by conducting a statistical experiment that is based on a randomized complete block design. Three sizes of problem structures ranging from 9 jobs to 55 jobs are used in the experiment. The results of the experiment suggest that no IS finding mechanism or TS algorithm contributed to identifying a better quality solution (i.e a lower TWT) for all three problem instances (i.e. small, medium and large). In other words, no IS finding mechanism or TS algorithm could statistically outperform others. In absence of a distinct outperformer, TS1 with short-term memory and fixed TLS are recommended for all problem instances. When comparing the efficiency of the search algorithm, the results of the experiment show that IS1, which refers to the EDD (earliest due date) method, is recommended as the initial solution generation method for small problem sizes. The EDD method is capable of obtaining an initial solution that helps the tabu-search based heuristic to get to the final solution within a short time. TS1 is recommended as the tabu-search based heuristic for large problems, in order to save on time. TS1 is also recommended to solve small and medium problem structures in absence of a statistically proven outperformer

Standardized development of computer software. Part 2: Standards

This monograph contains standards for software development and engineering. The book sets forth rules for design, specification, coding, testing, documentation, and quality assurance audits of software; it also contains detailed outlines for the documentation to be produced

Introduction to Production: Philosophies, Flow, and Analysis

Production is a fundamental societal and economic activity. Production has to do with the transformation of raw materials into useful objects and includes the knowledge to complete the transformation effectively. Thus, production is a board topic ranging from philosophies about how to approach production such as lean and quick response manufacturing, how to organize production facilities, how to analyze production operations, how to control the flow of materials during production, the devices used to move materials within a facility, and strategies for coordinating multiple production facilities. An integrated introduction to production is presented in a set of learning modules. In significant part, these learning modules are based on over 20 years of interactions with the professional production community in the West Michigan region where Grand Rapids and Holland are the principal cities. This community consists almost exclusively of small and medium size companies engaged primarily in high mix, low volume manufacturing. Students in the Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Science in Engineering programs at Grand Valley State University often work in production for these companies. Thus, interactions are facilitated particularly though master’s degree capstone projects, several of which are referenced in the learning modules. The learning modules are well-grounded in established production concepts. Emphasis is placed on proven procedures such as systematic layout planning, factory physics, various production flow control techniques such as kanban and POLCA, and discrete event simulation. Professional practice is a focus of the learning modules. Material from processional groups such as the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Material Handling Institute (MHI) is integrated. The opportunity to read and discuss professional publications presenting production improvement projects is provided. Students are referred to professional videos and web sites throughout the learning modules. All materials provided are referenced are open access and free of charge. When downloading the main file, it is important to also download and use the Main File Support as it contains supplemental materials.https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/books/1022/thumbnail.jp

Design of a Period Batch Control planning system for cellular manufacturing

Thesis 1 Introduction 2 Relationships between cells 3 Period Batch Control 4 Design factors for basic unicycle PBC systems 5 Models and methods for determining a period length P 6 Modelling the trade-off between N and P 7 Determining a configuration of the PBC system 8 Co- ordination between cells and PBC system design 9 Conclusions and further research Appendices: Short case descriptionsProduction planning Operations management

An Investigation on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Greenhouse Structures in Antalya

Significant population increase across the world, loss of cultivable land and increasing demand for food put pressure on agriculture. To meet the demand, greenhouses are built, which are, light structures with transparent cladding material in order to provide controlled microclimatic environment proper for plant production. Conceptually, greenhouses are similar with manufacturing buildings where a controlled environment for manufacturing and production have been provided and proper spaces for standardized production processes have been enabled. Parallel with the trends in the world, particularly in southern regions, greenhouse structures have been increasingly constructed and operated in Turkey. A significant number of greenhouses are located at Antalya. The satellite images demonstrated that for over last three decades, there has been a continuous invasion of greenhouses on all cultivable land. There are various researches and attempts for the improvement of greenhouse design and for increasing food production by decreasing required energy consumption. However, the majority of greenhouses in Turkey are very rudimentary structures where capital required for investment is low, but maintenance requirements are high when compared with new generation greenhouse structures. In this research paper, life-long capital requirements for construction and operation of greenhouse buildings in Antalya has been investigated by using benefit-cost analysis study