Author(s)

Bruno G. Rüttimann¹, Martin T. Stöckli²

¹ETH Zürich IWF, Zurich, Switzerland.
²Inspire AG, Zurich, Switzerland.

Respecting the on-time-delivery (OTD) for manufacturing orders is mandatory. This depends, however, on the probability distribution of incoming order rate. The case of non-equal distribution, such as aggregated arrivals, may compromise the observance of on-time supplies for some orders. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the conditions of post-optimality for stochastic order rate governed production systems in order to observe OTD. Instead of a heuristic or a simulative exploration, a Cartesian-based approach is applied to developing the necessary and sufficient mathematical condition to solve the problem statement. The research result demonstrates that increasing speed of throughput reveals a latent capacity, which allows arrival orders above capacity limits to be backlog-buffered and rescheduled for OTD, exploiting the virtual manufacturing elasticity inherent to all production systems to increase OTD reliability of non JIT-based production systems.

On-Time-Delivery, Production System, Lean Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Arrival Rate, Markovian Arrival Distribution, Production Backlog, Manufacturing Elasticity, Production Capacity, Bottle Neck, Break-Even Point, Optimal Production Volume, Ergodic Processes

G. Rüttimann, B. and T. Stöckli, M. (2020) Exploiting Virtual Elasticity of Production Systems for Respecting OTD-Part 1: Post-Optimality Conditions for Ergodic Order Arrivals in Fixed Capacity Regimes. American Journal of Operations Research, 10, 321-342. doi: 10.4236/ajor.2020.106018.