On the integration of card-allocation and dispatching decisions in POLCA systems : An assessment by simulation

Fernandes, Nuno and Thurer, Matthias and Stevenson, Mark (2023) On the integration of card-allocation and dispatching decisions in POLCA systems : An assessment by simulation. Production Planning and Control, 34 (13). pp. 1225-1232. ISSN 0953-7287

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Abstract

POLCA is an important card-based control system for low volume, high variety production contexts. A job can only be produced at an upstream station if it has acquired a POLCA card that has returned from its downstream station. A common assumption in the POLCA literature is that cards are allocated to jobs as soon as they return to the upstream station. This dissects the queue in front of a station into jobs that have a card (and can be produced) and those that do not have a card (and cannot be produced). This artificially and prematurely constrains the dispatching decision, i.e. the decision concerning which job to produce next at a station. In response, this paper proposes integrating the card-allocation and dispatching decisions such that the allocation of POLCA cards to jobs is postponed until the dispatching decision is made. Simulation results demonstrate that this integrated approach does not improve performance under simple ERD dispatching, as is commonly applied in the POLCA literature. But when a more powerful rule is applied, percentage tardy and mean tardiness performance improve by more than 75% and 50%, respectively, for an integrated decision. Most importantly, results suggest that in production environments like the one considered in this study, the integrated approach dispenses with the use of POLCA altogether if a suitable priority rule is used.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Production Planning and Control
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning & Control on 27/10/2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537287.2021.1995635
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1408
Subjects:
?? polcacard-allocation decisiondispatching decisiondiscrete event simulationstrategy and managementmanagement science and operations researchindustrial and manufacturing engineeringcomputer science applications ??
ID Code:
160513
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 Oct 2021 10:00
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Oct 2024 23:21