Measuring impact of CONWIP control on production rate and inventory distribution for a flexible production system through simulation

Abstract

This research investigates the production output and inventory distribution of a manufacturing system that produces multiple part types on flexible machines while incorporating CONWIP inventory controls. The production machines, which are separated by individual storage areas for each part type, are modeled as unreliable and operate according to a strict priority sequence. The maximum total inventory of each part type in the entire system is limited a preset number of tokens in the system. While varying the token levels and the demand for finished parts, the average production output for each part type and the average inventory level for each buffer is monitored to understand their behaviors. The relationship between the inventory distributions and the production rates is also investigated. The goal of this research is to develop intuition behind the system behavior.