One of the critical elements that managers face in manufacturing companies is to find an appropriate Production Control Mechanism (PCM) for their shop floor. There are many different PCMs and each of them has different performance depending on the situation. A convergent production line is a situation that rarely has been studied from this perspective. This study compares three kind of PCM that are identified as suitable for such a complex production line: POLCA, CONWIP and m-CONWIP. Extendsim simulation software was employed for discrete event simulation in order to compare performance of the considered PCMs in a convergent production line producing one type of product. The results indicate that the studied PCMs show distinct different performance in the various configurations of the convergent production line. The simulation shows (a bit surprisingly) that POLCA has the best performance in the considered situation and m-CONWIP has the worst performance. However, in an even more complex situation with more product types, the performance of POLCA would be under question. The study complements previous studies on PCM applicability and configuration, and has a strong industrial implication for the increased emphasis on decision support for operations management in a resource efficient production setting.
Hamburg International Conference of Logistic 2013