Introduction to Production Planning and Control Dr.

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud

0




Introduction to Production Planning and Control


Assistant Professor Dr. Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud

Department of Production Engineering and Metallurgy
University of Technology
Baghdad - Iraq
[email protected]
[email protected]



2013

Introduction to Production Planning and Control Dr. Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud

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Introduction to Production Planning and Control

Assistant Professor Dr. Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud
Department of Production Engineering and Metallurgy
University of Technology
Baghdad - Iraq
[email protected]
[email protected]


1 Introduction

Wight [1] stated that manufacturing is "the goose that laid the golden
egg". Production activities are the foundation of nation's economic system [2].
Production systems transfer, human, material, energy, machines, facilities,
information, and technology into higher-valued products. The outputs of
production systems are normally called "products". These products may be
tangible goods, intangible services, or combination. Goods are tangible items
that can be touched or held. Production systems that produce goods are often
referred to as "manufacturing systems" and the production of goods is called
"manufacturing" [3]. A schematic model of production system is shown in
figure (1).

Figure (1) Schematic Model of a Production System
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Production management responsibilities include bringing the inputs
together under an acceptable production plan that effectively utilizes the
material, capacity, and knowledge available in the production facility. Given a
demand on the system, work is scheduled and controlled to produce desired
products. Meanwhile control must be exercised over inventory, quality, and
costs to ensure the ability of production system to compete.
This article is devoted to give an introduction to the concept of
manufacturing systems, the evolution of production planning systems, the main
advanced production planning systems, and an extensive reading in the relevant
literature.
The aim of this is to present a theoretical study of the principles and
components of the main production planning and control (PP&C) approaches,
their concepts, their implementation requirements, in which environments they
can be adopted, and experiences of the different countries in implementing
them.

2 Concept of Manufacturing Systems and Key Terms

Manufacturing operations types are generally distinguished by the product
range, product complexity and life time of the product being manufactured. The
differences among the types of manufacturing processes have important
implications on the choice of the production planning system. It is normal to
distinguish four types of manufacturing processes namely; "job shop", "batch
flow", "assembly line", and "continuous process" [4], [5]. In job shop a wide
range of customized products are manufactured in low-volume according to
costumer's wishes. In batch flow reasonably complex products from large
products range are made in moderate-volume batches. In assembly line a small
range of identical complex products is manufactured in high-volume usually on
a production line consisting of single purpose machines. In continuous process
the material flow is continuous. In this type the plant, equipments, and layout are
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designed for certain product/s and the change of the product/s is difficult. Silver
et al [5] summarized the characteristics of each type of these manufacturing
processes as shown in Table (1).
Usually, machines have to be given relatively fixed positions in the plant
and there are two extreme approaches of the design of plant layout. The first one
is "processoriented" or "functional" layout; machines with similar functions
are grouped together. Often those functional groups are arranged into the order
in which they are used in the typical product, so that a product moves in a
constant direction through the plant during the production process. The second
one is "product-oriented" or "cellular" layouts, where machines involved in a
range of similar products are grouped together. This idea is also known as
"Group Technology" (GT) [3], [6], [7]. In all approaches of plant layout,
individual machines or the group of identical machines are called "work
centers".
Generally, Silver et al [5] summarized the previous remarks and gave
some examples on the applications of each case in a graphical representation
that is known as "product-process matrix". This matrix is shown in figure (2).
Three main points can be noticed in this matrix. First, the authors have divided
"assembly line" into "worker-paced" and "machine-paced" flow. Second,
industries are arranged in a way in which the large and few number products are
located in the top left corner, process industries products toward the bottom right
corner, and assembly products in the middle. Third, there are some exceptions
from the previous arrangement such as drugs and specialty chemicals, which are
often considered as process industry products, are centrally located because they
are produced in batches.
Today, design, industrial, and manufacturing engineering departments are
working together for the design of product. This type of cooperative effort is
called "Concurrent Engineering" (CE) concept [8].


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Table (1) Characteristics of Manufacturing Process Types [5]
Characteristics
Type of Process/Industry
Job Shop Batch Production Assembly Line Continuous Process
Number of customers Many Many ,but fewer Less Few
Number of products Many Fewer Fewer still Few
Product
differentiation
Customized Less customized More standardized Standardized
(commodities)
Marketing
characteristics
Features of the product Quality and features Quality and features or
availability/price
Availability/price
Families of items Little concern Some concern Some concern Primary concern
Aggregation of data Difficult Less difficult Less difficult Easier
Byproducts Few Few Few More
Need for traceability Little Intermediate Little High
Material requirements Difficult to predict More predictable Predictable Very predictable
Control over suppliers Low Moderate High Very high
Vertical integration None Very little Some backward, often
forward
Backward and forward
Inventories
- Raw materials Small Moderate Varies, frequent
deliveries
Large, continuous
deliveries
- WIP Large Moderate Small Very small
- Finished goods None Varies High Very high
QC Responsibility Direct labor Varies QC Specialists Process control
Production
information
requirements
High Varies Moderate Low
Scheduling Uncertain, frequent
changes
Frequent expediting Often established in
advance
Inflexible, sequence
dictated by technology
Operations challenges Increasing labor and
machine utilization, fast
response, breaking
bottlenecks
Balancing stages,
designing procedures,
responding to diverse
needs
Rebalancing line,
productivity
improvement, adjusting
staffing levels, morale
Avoiding down time,
timing, expansions, cost
minimization
End-of-period push
for output
Much Frequent Infrequent Non (can't do anything)
Capital versus
labor/material
intensive
Labor Labor and material Material and labor Capital
Typical factory size Usually small Moderate Often large Large
Level of automation Low Intermediate Low or high High
Number of raw
materials
Often low Low High Low
Bottlenecks Shifting frequently Shifting often, but
predictable
Certainly known and
stationary
Known and stationary
Speed (units/day) Slow Moderate Fast Very fast
Process flow No pattern A few dominant
patterns
Rigid flow pattern Clear and inflexible
Type of equipment General purpose Combination of
specialized and general
purpose
Specialized, low or high
tech.
Specialized, high tech.
Flexibility of output Very Intermediate Relatively low (except
some assemble to
order)
Low
Run length Very short Moderate Long Very long
Definition of capacity Fuzzy, often expressed
in dollars
Varies Clear, in terms of
output rates
Clear, expressed in
physical terms
Capacity addition Incremental Varies Chunks, requires
rebalancing
Monthly in chunks,
requires
synchronization
Nature of
maintenance
As needed As needed, or
preventive when idle
As needed Shutdown
Energy usage Low Low, but can be higher Low High
Process changes
required by new
products
Incremental Often incremental Incremental or radical Always radical



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Product mix



Process pattern
Few of each;
custom
Low
volume;
many
products
High volume;
several major
products
Very high
volume;
commodity
Job shop
(very jumbled flow)
Aerospace
Commercial printer
Industrial machinery
Apparel
Machine tools
Drugs, specialty chemicals
Electrical and
electronics

Automobile
Tire and rubber
Steel products
Major chemicals
Paper, oil, steel
Brewers, forest
products
Batch
(less jumbled flow)
Worker-paced
(line flow)
Machine-paced
(line flow)
Continuous
(automated, rigid
flow)

Figure (2) Product-Process Matrix [5]

The manufacturing methods are typically specified in two documents. The
first one is the "Bill of Materials" (BOM), which sets out the name and quantity
of each part and subassembly that make up the finished items. The second is the
"routing", which specifies the operations and machines involved in each process
of the manufacturing of the product. These two documents are essential for
production planning activities in any manufacturing organization.
Generally, most manufacturing organizations carry out some stock of the
various items used in manufacture as a buffer against variation in "supply" or
"demand". Stocks of purchased materials are called "raw material inventory",
stock of items assembled for convenience or efficiency reasons to partial
completion, are called "components inventory" or "subassemblies inventory",
and stocks of the end-items are called "finished goods inventory". These types of
inventory are shown in figure (3).

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Figure (3) Types of Inventory in Manufacturing Organizations

All manufacturing organizations buy at least some inputs to their
processes from other producers. Management decides the level of "vertical
integration" by looking at all the processes performed between the acquisition of
raw materials or outside services and the delivery of finished products. Vertical
integration can be in two directions. "Backward integration" represents a firm's
movement upstream toward the source of raw materials and parts. "Forward
integration" means that the firm acquires more channels of distribution such as
its own distribution centers "warehouses" and retail stores [9].
Typically, the manufacturing organizations have three categories of
managerial planning activities whose names "strategic", "tactical", and
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"operational" production planning [5], [10], [11]. Strategic planning is clearly of
"long-range" scope planning decisions. It is a responsibility of top management
so it is called "business planning". Tactical planning is a "medium-range"
activity involving middle managements. Finally operational planning, which
involves "short-range" actions, and it is normally executed by lower levels of
management (factory operations managers).
Long-range (business plans) are necessary to develop facilities and
equipment, major suppliers, and production processes and become constraints
on the medium-range plan. Medium-range is "aggregate plans" concerning with
employment, aggregate inventory, utilities, facility modifications, and material-
supply contracts. These aggregate plans impose constraints on the short-range
production plans that follow. So short-range is "Master Production Schedules"
(MPS) for producing finished goods or end items, which are used to derive
production planning and control systems. These systems develop short-range
production schedules of parts and assemblies, schedules of purchased materials,
shop-floor schedules, and workforce schedules [7], [12]. Figure (4) gives an
illustration of the planning activities.

3 From Informal to Formal Systems

Previously, in the craft system of manufacture, all work allocation and
scheduling decisions were made by the foreman who was a craftsman of
superior skill and experience. Finished items were normally made one at a time
to be completed by a group of craftsmen under his command.
At that time, the knowledge of the process of manufacturing was not
clear, passed on by personal instruction, and seldom recorded. Thus operations
management was "informal" and not efficiency-oriented.
With the industrial revolution, which began in England in about 1760,
came better documentation concepts and techniques were recorded, taught, and
thus passed on to form a growing body of knowledge [13].
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Figure (4) Production Planning in Manufacturing
Business Planning
Aggregate
Production
Planning
Master Production
Scheduling
Production
Planning and
Control Systems
Planning Horizon

Description
Long-Range
(1-5 Years Horizon)
Medium-Range
(3-12 Months Horizon)
Short-Range
(1-90 Days Horizon)
Top management make long-range plans
for (1)facilitates- plant locations, layouts,
size, and capacities; (2) major supplier
plans and amount of vertical integrations;
(3) processing plans- new production
technology, new production processes,
new system of automations.

Factory operations managers
make plans for master production
schedules -the quantity and timing
of the production of finished
goods and end items.


Factory operations managers make
plans for (1) production schedules of
parts and assemblies to be
manufactured; (2) schedules of
purchased materials; (3) shop floor
schedulesmachine changeovers, batch
movements; (4) workforce schedules.
Middle management make plans for (1)
employmentlayoffs, hiring, recalls,
vacations, overtime, part-time
employees; (2) inventories; (3) utilities;
(4) facility modifications; (5) material-
supply contractors.
Phase I
Phase II
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In the late 19
th
and early 20
th
century, a number of innovations enabled a
quantum leap in the scope and complexity of manufacturing creating the need
for much more "formal" methods of manufacturing operations management.
Although the idea of making product by the assembly of exchangeable parts has
a long history, especially in the armaments industry [4], it was only achievable
at a high cost for complex precision items that required in assembling complex
products, such as automobiles.
"Interchangeability" of parts helped enable "batch production" and
ultimately "mass production" of machinery. This made necessary the much
greater formality and precision in the "codification" of manufacturing processes
and "parts specifications". In 1800 Eli Whitney was credited with the early
popularization of interchangeable parts, which he achieved by "standardizing"
parts and through effective "Quality Control" (QC), and in 1881 Frederick W.
Taylor contributed to "personnel selection", "planning and scheduling", and
"motion study" that led to the discipline of "method engineering" [14]. In
addition to the title of "father of scientific management", Taylor is known as the
father of "industrial engineering" [7].
The codification of manufacturing practices reduced the control of
workers and foreman over the organization work and gave the responsibility for
scheduling the manufacturing to specialized production control departments.
The scientific study of the decision aspect of "operations management"
began with the development of the "Economic Order Quantity" (EOQ) model by
F.W. Harris in year 1915, which attempt to answer the question "How many
parts to order / make at once?" [2].
The application of mathematical analysis to military logistics problems
during world war II , going under the name of "Operations Research" (OR), led
to the founding in peace time of the academic disciplines of "production and
inventory management", and "production control", and professional societies
such as the "American Production and Inventory Control Society" (APICS) [15].
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However, with the time manufacturing systems have been more
complicated and their requirements growing due to the competition in
businesses, hence, there has been a steady development in production planning
and control activities to fulfill the needs of manufacturing organizations.

4 Computerizing

Before the computer was available companies took six to thirteen weeks
to calculate their requirements of materials manually or with some help from
tabulating equipments. They typically "ordered" once every thirteen weeks, this
was called the "quarterly ordering system" [1].
Around the mid 1950's the availability of the electronic computers gave
the hope that the problems of production planning and inventory control could
be at last being solved. The earliest computer applications were aimed at
recording inventory of parts and end items and to use the "Scientific Inventory
Control" or "Statistical Inventory Control" (SIC), to help in the ordering
decision for bought and manufactured parts using the "Reorder Point" (ROP)
method. The ROP method treats all subassemblies and raw-material demand as
"independent" of the end item demand, and signals the ordering of a
predetermined order quantity when the stock of any item falls below a
predetermined order point. The method generally results in large "Work-in-
Process" (WIP) inventories [16].
When random access magnetic tape storage became available around
1960, the prospects for efficiently handling the complex "dependency" of
demand implied in the bill of materials of a manufactured product, were greatly
enhanced when a company has computerized its bills of materials, while
components are ordered by ROP method. Bill of materials explosion is used to
check their availability at order release time [17].
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Around that time a new technique was developed as a valid alternative to
ROP and SIC approaches. This technique is known as "Material Requirement
Planning" (MRP) [18].

5 Material Requirements Planning (Quick Overview)

Until the 1960's many manufacturing organizations used ROP method.
Thus components were often ordered when not actually needed and so this
method tended to result in very high inventory levels.
Later on, the competitive of the products became tougher as the world
moved toward the "economic war", and businesses began to realize that their
future depended on developing a much better response to customer needs,
manufacturers faced the challenges of improving the quality and reduce the time
and cost of their products .
In early 1970's the APICS lunched a high profile MRP education and
promotional program called "MRP crusade" [19], [20].
The researchers in the field of planning realized the needs of
manufacturing organizations for more efficient system for planning and control
of stock to be able to compete in the market, thus MRP was developed, and
within twenty years MRP technique has been changing dramatically in a
stepwise progression toward "Manufacturing Resource Planning" (MRP II). The
main steps in the development of MRP were:-
1. A better ordering method.
2. Priority planning.
3. Closed-loop MRP.
4. Manufacturing Resource Planning MRP II.

However, MRP II implementation is classified into four categories
"ABCD classification", which has become widely used. Class "D"
implementation is the lowest level of implementation and class "A"
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implementation means that MRP II is running the entire activities of the
business.
In the 1990's, the new innovation "Enterprise Resource Planning" (ERP),
which can be considered as direct extension of MRP II was coined to describe
the latest development in resource planning. Nowadays, a new generation of
ERP system, going under the name of (ERP II), is established [21].
The development of MRP-type systems and their functionality evolutions
can be illustrated as in figure (5).


Figure (5) Development of MRP-type Systems and Their
Functionality Evolutions

During the 1980's MRP faced competitions from the other "Computer
Aided Production Management" (CAPM) systems, mainly the "Optimized
Production Technology" (OPT), as well as the J apanese "Just-in-Time" (J IT)
philosophy.
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6 Optimized Production Technology

Optimized Production Technology (OPT) is a computerized production
planning and scheduling tool developed by Creative Output of Milford,
Connecticut, USA [22]. OPT realized that a detailed schedule and detailed shop
floor feedback where only required for the "bottleneck" processes and that "non-
bottleneck" processes can and should be slaved to these.
Furthermore, OPT follows a set of principles called the "Theory of
Constraints" (TOC) [5]. This theory is focusing attention on the capacity
constraints or bottleneck parts of the operation. By identifying the location of
constraints, working to remove them, then looking for next constraints an
operation always focusing on the part that critically determine the pace of output
[23]. A constraint is defined as anything that prevents a system from achieving
high performance relative to its goal.

6.1 The Base Rules of OPT

OPT is based on a set of ten related rules*, which principally focus on
managing bottleneck and non-bottleneck resources. The ten rules are as follows
[23], [5]:-
1. Utilization and activation of a resource are not synonymous. There is
no gain from running a non bottleneck machine if its output will only
build up inventory in front of a bottleneck.
2. The level of utilization of a non-bottleneck is not determined by its own
potential, but by some other constraint in the system. The utilization of
a non-bottleneck is limited by the rate of the bottleneck machine.

.
* They are nine rules according to Vonderembse and White [10]; Waller [22]; Vollmann et al [24]; and Shafer
and Meredith [25], the 10
th
rule is embedded in the 9
th
rule.
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3. An hour lost at the bottleneck is an hour lost for the total system. This
rule parallels and extends rule number 1, and helps managers focus on
all activities at the bottleneck.
4. An hour saved at a non-bottleneck is a mirage. Throughput will not
increase with savings at a non-bottleneck. Therefore, managers should
focus improvement efforts elsewhere. The time spent by a job at a
bottleneck is compared of set-up and processing time, while the time
spent at a non-bottleneck includes set-up, processing, and idle time.
Reducing the set-up time at a bottleneck saves time for the entire
system. But, reducing set-up time at a non-bottleneck may increase
idle time.
5. The bottleneck governs the throughput and inventory in the system.
Inventory should be used carefully so that the bottleneck is never face
a lack of parts to process.
6. The transfer batch size should not necessarily equal the production
batch size. When a large batch being run on a non-bottleneck just prior
to a bottleneck then it would be desirable to get it started on part of the
batch (This part called "transfer batch"), even through the non-
bottleneck is still processing the reminder. The use of different sized
transfer batches is called "lot streaming".
7. The production batch size should not be the same from stage to stage in
the process. Lot sizes at bottlenecks should, in general, be larger than
at non-bottleneck, so that less time is lost to set-ups. Of course, the
small batches from the non-bottleneck need to arrive at the bottleneck
in the time to be rejoined into a large batch.
8. Capacity and priority should be considered simultaneously. Because the
lead time for a given batch depends on the priority given to it at a
machine, and on the capacity of the machine, priority rules should be
determined in conjunction with the capacity of the machine. In fact,
the capacities at all constrained resources should be considered.
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9. Balance flow, not capacity. The flow through the plant should equal
market demand.
10. The sum of local optima is not equal to the optimum of the whole.
Problems develop when supervisors at bottleneck, supervisors at non-
bottlenecks, and marketing personnel all optimize for their own goals.
Many supervisors try to run their equipment at full capacity, while
many marketing personnel try to make bigger profits by selling more
at the end of the quarter.

6.2 The Mechanism of OPT

No doubt, that the available information in the literature about the
working mechanism of the OPT is very limited, but OPT produce production
plans and detailed schedules using the following four basic modules [26]:-
1. Buildnet: This module creates a model of the manufacturing facility
using data on work center capabilities, routings, Bill of Materials,
inventories, and sales forecasts. This model is in the form of network.
2. Serve: The model of the workshop is run through an iterative process to
determine bottlenecks in the system. Serve is similar to MRP in its
workings, and one of its outputs is a load profile for each of the
resources in the model. The most heavily utilized resource could
produce a bottleneck in the system and must be examined carefully.
Some times, rescheduling work from the heavily utilized machine to
some other alternate to machine may produce satisfactory results.
3. Split: The network model of the shop floor is divided into two parts:
critical resources and non-critical resources. The bottleneck operation
and all other operations follow it in the order of manufacturing process
up to the customer orders are included in the critical resources portion
of the network. The remaining portion of the network includes non-
critical resources.
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4. Brain: The operations in the critical resource portion of the network are
scheduled using module called the Brain of OPT. This module
determines production and transfer lot sizes and the timing of
production for each product for the bottleneck operations. Its output is
fed to serve module, which then produces the entire production plan.

6.3 Weaknesses of OPT

Although, OPT attempts to overcome the weakness of the early MRP
systems of taking no account of the finiteness of shop floor capacity, but
practically OPT also have its own disadvantages. The main disadvantage of OPT
is the concept of shifting bottlenecks. When the production volume and the mix
of products are known, we can find out the bottlenecks in a system. But
practically, the "aggregate planning" exercise is done at least over several
months and the volume of the mix may change from one week to another.
Different volumes or mixes can lead to different bottlenecks when that happen,
this means that the bottleneck is shifting. It is not clear how OPT handle this
dynamic situation because it relies on a clearly identified stationary bottleneck.
From other side, OPT focuses on bottleneck machines and ignores others
during the planning horizon. Thus, OPT provides a plan for a production system
that approximates the actual production system. In order for an OPT plan to
work, it is necessary to have plenty of non-bottleneck resources. When the cost
of non-bottleneck resources are not small, the OPT plan may have a high cost.
This restricts the usefulness of OPT for cases when non-bottleneck resources are
expensive.
The other weakness of OPT is that many researchers and practitioners
alike have complained that the OPT software was a "black box", because its
details were never published [5]. Obviously, OPT is truly difficult to understand,
and in general it is not for novice [24].

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7 Just-in-Time

J ust-in-Time (J IT) approach was developed for the first time at the
"Toyota Motor Company" of J apan by Taiichi Ohno and others in mid 1970's
[27]. J IT is used referring to a production system in which both the movement of
goods during the production and deliveries from suppliers are carefully timed so
that at each step of the process the next batch arrives for processing just as the
preceding batch is completed, thus the name "Just-in-time" basically means to
produce the necessary units in the necessary quantities at the necessary time. So
that the production of one extra piece is just as had as being one piece short. The
ambition is to be able to produce a product down to one unit at a time [28], such
system requires a right schedule and frequent set-ups of machines. Small
quantities of everything must be produced several times a day. The system must
run smoothly because any shortage has an almost immediate impact on the
entire system.
Obviously, J IT is a philosophy of management extending from suppliers
through production to distribution systems. Hence, J IT cannot be reduced to a
"formula"; every firm may apply the philosophy differently [25].

7.1 The Goals of JIT

The ultimate goal of J IT is a balanced, smooth and rapid flow of materials
through the system. This can be achieved by approaching the following
supporting goals first [12].
1. Eliminate disruptions.
2. Make the system flexible.
3. Reduce set-up times and lead times.
4. Minimize inventories.
5. Eliminate waste.

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These requirements need planning with an extensive degree of accuracy
and ultimate degrees of discipline in all of the facets of the production system,
as it will be explained later on.

7.2 JIT and Kanban System

The term "kanban" has sometimes been used as equivalent to J IT, which
certainly is not the truth. Kanban is the associated manual information and
controlling system, to J IT philosophy. Kanban is a J apanese word for "card".
They often use cards to signal the need for more material, hence the name
kanban. The system has been modified in many facilities so that, even though it
is called a kanban, the card does not exist. In some cases, an empty position on
the floor is an indication that the next lot is needed, in other cases, some sort of
signal, such as flag or rag is used to signify that it is time for the next batch.
Figure (6) shows two of these facilities.
The idea behind the kanban system is to authorize material for production
only if there is a need for them. Through the use of this system, production is
"pulled" through the production system; instead of "pushed" out before if is
needed and then stored.
In general, kanban system works in the way that, two cards are used; a
"withdrawal kanban" and a "production kanban". These cards are very simple,
showing only the part number and name, the work centers involved, storage
location, and the container capacity. The approach is illustrated in figure (7).
For example, assuming that work flows from work center number one
(WC1) to WC2, and containers are used to transport the output from WC1 to
WC2, where they are used as inputs. When WC2 sees that it will need more
input parts, it takes an empty container and a withdrawal kanban back to WC1.
There it leaves the empty container and locates a full one, which has a
production kanban with it. WC2 replaces the production kanban with its
withdrawal kanban, which authorizes it to remove the full container and the
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withdrawal kanban. It puts the production kanban in a rack at WC1, thereby
authorizing the production of another container of parts. Back at WC2, the
withdrawal kanban is placed back in its rack. WC1 cannot initiate production
and fill an empty container until it has a production kanban authorizing
additional production. Thus, withdrawal kanban authorize the acquisition of
additional material from a supplying work center and production kanban
authorize a work center to make additional product.



(a)


(b)
Figure (6) Two Facilities Used As a Signal in Kanban System[11]
(a) The signal is an empty position on the floor.
(b) The signal is a flag or marker.

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Figure (7) Kanban Process [25]

Although, the main advantage of kanban system is its simplicity but, it is
not appropriate in many manufacturing environments and cannot be applicable
without preparing several requirements.

7.3 The Requirements of JIT

In relevant literature such as; [3], [5], [7], [8], [12], [22], [29], [30],
authors mention several conditions and supporting techniques which must first
exist or to be developed to make J IT and kanban truly effective, these can be
summarized in the following:-
1. Multi-skilled work force. Multi-skilled workers provide flexibility in
scheduling because they are able to meet differing production demands
by moving to different work centers as needed. This can be achieved
only by "cross training" of workers in several production areas.
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2. Customer-supplier cooperation, sole sourcing, and long term
commitments. Suppliers must be able to make reliable, on time
delivery of consistently good quality products and still remain flexible.
To achieve this, customers and suppliers must work closely together.
3. Employee motivation and "mutual trust" between the workers and the
management. J IT implementations include a strong degree of worker
participation because new and heavy responsibilities are put on them.
Practically, J IT requires a full "loyalty" of the workers and "with JIT,
plant employs workers hearts and minds, not just their backs".
4. Extremely high levels of quality. To ensure that production will not be
interrupted due to parts with poor quality. One technique to achieve
high levels of quality is called "poka-yoke", which means foolproof
operations. In J IT environments employees are acting as their own
quality inspectors through "quality circles". Furthermore, at some
J apanese plants, workers communicate with flashing lights; a system
called "andon" is used to indicate when a quality problem occurs in
order to stop the production line. This activity is called "quality at
source".
5. Highly reliable equipments. To ensure that the system is not forced to
shutdown while repair is made, one way to achieve the high levels of
equipments quality is through "Total productive Maintenance" (TPM).
This can be achieved by training machine operators to perform some
of their own maintenance, especially preventive maintenance. By so
doing, maintenance specialists can then be freed to develop higher-
order skills for improved maintenance systems.
6. Well organized workplaces. In J IT environments workplaces should be
well organized so the tools should be stored neatly in designated place,
materials arranged neatly, and aisles kept clear of clutters. The workers
should follow these activities as habit and these are done through what
is called "housekeeping". Housekeeping is based on five rules which
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22
are often referred to as the (5S) process which originated from the five
J apanese words seiri (sort), seiton (straighten), seiso (sweep), seiketsu
(standardize), and shitsuke (self-discipline). Housekeeping not only
creates a more attractive and pleasant work atmosphere, but also
improves workers morale, reduces maintenance requirements, and
reduces accidents that can injure employees or damage machines.
7. Small batch sizes and low set-up times. Small batch sizes reduce
average cycle stock, and provide faster feed back on quality problem.
Although small batches are beneficial to operations, they have the
disadvantages of increased set-up frequency. Hence, set-up times must
be reduced to realize the benefits of small batch size production. In
some firms, eight hour set-up times have been decreased to less than
ten minutes. The goal of set-ups under ten minutes has been called
"Single Minute Exchange of Dies" (SMED).
8. Group technology and manufacturing cells. Group technology clusters
dissimilar machines into manufacturing cells for processing a given
part or a family of similar parts having similar processing
requirements. One multi-skilled operator may run several machines,
which eliminate the move and queue time between operations in a
given cell. Group technology is used to physically link and overlap as
many operations as possible. Equipments are placed very close to each
other similar to an assembly line.
9. A stable master production schedule (MPS). At Toyota, the MPS is
frozen for the first month, and the entire MPS covers one year. The
production schedule is exactly the same for each day of the month.
This means that the same products are produced in the same quantities
in the same sequence every day in the month. This will be explained in
the next section.
10. High-volume, repetitive manufacturing, because this type of
manufacturing is likely to be conductive to the previous requirements.
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7.4 Leveled Scheduling and Mixed Modeling in JIT Environment

As noted, J IT requires high-volume, repetitive manufacturing with stable
or leveled production schedule. "Heijunka" is the J apanese word for leveled
scheduling so that the mix and volume of production are even over time [30].
The principle of leveled scheduling can be taken further to given mixed
modeling. Hence, mixed modeling is a matter of even production in which items
are produced smoothly throughout the day rather than in large batches of one
item, followed by long time set-ups for producing another large batch of another
item. Leveled scheduling and mixed model can be illustrated with an example.
Assume three products are being produced in a plant with the following
demands; every two weeks (ten working days), 500 units of product A, 400 units
of product B, and 200 units of product C are required.
Master production schedule for the products can be devised here, in
different ways. First, the conventional approach would be to produce, in large
batches, all of the requirements for each product for the two weeks. This
scheduling is as shown in table (2), where all requirements of a product are
produced, before changing over to start production of another product.

Table (2) Master Production Schedule (Conventional Approach)
Product
Day
Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
A 250 250 500
B 100 100 100 100 400
C 50 50 50 50 200

The other option uses leveled scheduling, producing a mix of products in
smaller lots. Because there are 1,100 units required every ten days, 110 must be
made each day, on average. This reduces to 50 of A, 40 of B, and 20 of C each
day. Hence, leveled scheduling will be as shown in table (3).

Introduction to Production Planning and Control Dr. Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud

24

Table (3) Leveled Scheduling
Product
Day
Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
A 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 500
B 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 400
C 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 200

Obviously, the principle of leveled scheduling is straightforward but the
requirements to put it into practice are quite severe [30].
Now it can be noticed that the production requirements are in the ratio of;
5 of A, to 4 of B, to 2 of C, found by dividing the products production
requirements by the greatest common devisor, or 10. Therefore, since J IT
production strives for batch size of just one unit, so the planner could develop a
production cycle consisting of eleven units; 5 of A, 4 of B, 2 of C. One possible
production cycle would be to produce the three products in small batches using a
sequence such as (A-A-A-A-A-B-B-B-B-C-C). Alternatively, to smooth the
production of the eleven units throughout the production cycle, a sequence such
as (C-A-B-A-B-C-A-B-A-B-A) might be used. It is clear that numerous other
sequences are also possible.
Simply, this cycle would repeat ten times each day. For this reason set-up
times must be extremely reduced. It is clear that a schedule such as this is rate-
based rather than batch.

7.5 JIT Implementation

Practically, J IT implementation is a very difficult task and it is a long time
mission, "Toyota took more than twenty years to implement J IT" [3], [5]. Thus,
the managers of any organization must understand that to achieve the "ultimate
goal" of J IT; the manufacturing system must achieve the "supporting goals"
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25
first. The later cannot be achieved without preparing the four key "building
blocks" and their elements, which are shown in figure (8).



Figure (8) J IT Goals and Building Blocks [12]

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