Hybrid Kanban/Conwip control system simulation and optimization based on theory of constraints

The pull type production control system has been of a continuing interest and challenge for researchers and practitioners since its advent. However, the bottleneck problems under this mechanism have not yet been studied in-depth. This approach proposed a Hybrid Knaban/Conwip control system, which combined the advantages of Conwip and Kanban control strategy, as well as the theory of constraints (TOC). The hybrid control system model is formulated with respect to DBR (drum-buffer-rope) technique and a novel TOC based bottleneck resources discovery and scheduling mechanism is presented. To validate its effectiveness, simulations under witness environment were done and the comparison among the Conwip, Conwip/pull and integrated control system was given. The simulation results showed that the method was indeed able to solve the bottleneck problem and greatly improve the productivity and reduced the delay time of the production system. The simulation and comparison results showed that the proposed hybrid system can solve the bottleneck problem effectively with enhancing of the system and reducing the delay time.