Closed-loop workload input–output control of production systems : a hybrid simulation study

Mušič, Gašper (author), Sagawa, Juliana Keiko (author)

Workload Control (WLC) is a method of adjusting the overall workload in the production system by controlling the input of production orders and the output of produced items. It contributes to the predictability of lead times and more accurate delivery date commitments in make-to-order manufacturing. Input control relates to order release and output control to capacity adjustment. In a recent previous work, a novel approach to integrated input–output control has been proposed: a dynamic closed-loop model where automatic feedback control is added and where order release and capacity decisions are based on the observed shop floor state. In this paper, this approach is further investigated in a more realistic hybrid simulation setting, combining discrete-time controllers and a discrete-event model of a manufacturing shop. The hybrid model was applied to two different systems: an elementary 4-machine shop floor (as a proof of concept) and a more complex real system, a manufacturing cell of cylinder liners. The results show that simultaneous input–output control is effective and enables the systems to maintain WIP balance, absorb demand fluctuations, and effectively reject disturbances. The simulations of the complex system showed that it might be advantageous to provide more local or more global information to the controllers, depending on the variability of the processing times and on the managerial focus. Closed-loop discrete-event models for WLC production control are unprecedented. Also, a simultaneous input and output control setting is much less reported in WLC literature than settings with input control only (i.e., order release only). This paper contributes in both ways.

• Language: English
• Keywords: production, workload control, closed-loop control systems, Industry 4.0, simulation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FE - Faculty of Electrical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 198, art. 110669
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-164700
• UDC: 681.5
• ISSN on article: 0360-8352
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cie.2024.110669
• COBISS.SI-ID: 214104579
• Publication date in RUL: 07.11.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Computers & industrial engineering
• Shortened title: Comput. ind. eng.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0360-8352
• COBISS.SI-ID: 4909066

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: proizvodnja, vodenje obremenitve, zaprtozančni sistemi vodenja, industrija 4.0, simulacija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0219
• Name: Modeliranje, simulacija in vodenje procesov

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: Brazil, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
• Project number: 310812/2021-6