Increasing the production rate of a just-in-time production system with variable operation times

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Abstract
This paper examines a just-in-time (JIT) system with kanbans with three subassembly lines feeding a final assembly station. Variability in operation times exists and variability effects are reduced by increasing work in process levels or by unbalancing the subassembly lines through assignment of work content at each station. Of the several unbalancing methods that were analysed in this study, only the high-medium-low showed a consistent improvement in the output rate of the JIT production system. The output rates with unbalanced stations were always superior to the output rate of the perfectly balanced configurations used as controls. The extent of improvement over the output rate of balanced systems increased directly with the variability in operation times in final assembly and subassembly stations and inversely with the interstage buffer capacity allowed in the system.