Book Description
This book covers the area of unpaced, unbalanced production lines. You will find an up-to-date discussion of how designing these lines can be made more efficient by taking advantage of inherent imbalance -- for example operators who work at different speeds- a concept which has traditionally been seen as an obstacle to efficient production. A series of experiments are presented to illustrate the issues involved in improving performance through production line imbalance. This area is of interest to postgraduate and executive level students interested in the area of production, and to managers of manual or semi-automated production lines who are interested in innovative approaches to line design. In this book you will find some surprisingly easy ways to improve performance with low or zero costs. Emphasis is placed on reducing the amount of time production lines lie idle, and on reducing work in process. This is a timely contribution to the field when managers are casting around for new ways to cut waste and reduce their use of natural resources.
Table of Contents
- Production Line Efficiency: A Comprehensive Guide for Managers
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Chapter 1: Introduction
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Chapter 2: The Unpaced Production Line
- Introduction
- Blocking and Starving
- Issues in Line Design: An Imperfect Science
- Balanced Versus Unbalanced: Myths and Modern Thinking
- Average Working Times, Worker Variability, and Positioning Your Operators
- Line Length
- Buffer Capacity
- Buffer Allocation
- Triple Imbalance
- Performance Measurements
- Conclusion
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Chapter 3: Unbalanced Lines Studied
- Introduction
- Unbalanced Mean Operation Times
- Arranging Assemblers
- Small Changes—Big Savings
- Idle Time: Bowl Shape Is Best
- Accelerating Times Improve Average Buffer Levels
- Conclusion
- Unbalanced Variabilities
- Uneven Buffer Configurations—No Striking Pattern
- Unbalanced Service Time Means and Variabilities
- Uneven Mean Service Times and Buffer Sizes
- Unequal Variabilities and Buffer Capacities
- Conclusion
- Unequal Means, Variabilities, and Buffers
- Conclusion
- Chapter 4: Considerations in Unbalancing Your Line
- Notes
- References