| dc.description.abstract | Workload control concept (WLC) is well known as a unique production and
planning control (PPC) for small and medium-sized enterprises with limited financial
resources. WLC is designed to meet the needs of controlling and stabilizing the workload in shop floor for make-to-order and make-to-engineer companies, where job shop configuration is typical. WLC was developed over the course of three decades and was based on theoretical, conceptual, mathematical, analytical, and simulated situations. Conceptually, WLC consists of four levels or stages. The first stage is customer inquiry management, which is when companies place bids or quotes for an order. The second stage is the job entry stage, where a competitive due date is assigned to each order. The third stage is the order release stage, which consists of reviewing orders in a pre-shop pool until their release date. The last stage is priority dispatching, which prioritizes the released orders on the shop floor. It has been practically proven that WLC reduces work-in-process and total throughput time by 30-40%, despite the small percentages demonstrated by simulations. Most of the studies focused on developing releasing rules to control order release; however, few successful implementations have been reported. The deviation in performance and theory is known as workload control paradox. This deviation proves that simulations do not reliably calculate expected performance, which should be considered before the implementation of WLC. This study evaluates the implementation of WLC in Y company. The first part of
this study measures the suitability of the Y company as made-to-order business. Then,
further investigation explores the applicability of WLC, which analyses Y company’s
characteristics using a framework. Testing the applicability of WLC reduces the chance
of jeopardizing the implementation of the inconvenient PPC approach that may cost time and money, which may risk the success of the company. The second part of the study assesses the performance of WLC in the Y company by analyzing one method for the due date assignment, five different rules for releasing orders, and two separate rules for dispatching. The simulation is constructed with high face validity to resemble the actual Y production system and types of orders and routes; however, the data used in this simulation is taken from previous studies (Thurer, Stevenson, Silva, Land, & Fredendall, 2011) since the primary goal is to measure the performance of WLC by using different rules and factors based on a company with a comparable business model. The third part outlines the implementation of the WLC strategy. Some scholars
have reported that some implementation approaches have produced several issues. Even though there have been few successful implementation cases, a detailed application procedure has not been established; therefore, implementation strategies are also outlined in detail. The most recent research on WLC was used to construct the most applicable strategy for successful implementation. The results indicated that some barriers Y company prevent from implementing WLC. Through the simulation, one releasing rule was identified as the most compatible rule for the Y company. Finally, the limitations and future implications are discussed. | en_US |
