Analysis and design of manufacturing systems with multiple-loop structures

Kanban means card or token. A kanban-controlled production system is one where the flow of material is controlled by the presence or absence of a kanban, and where kanbans travel in the system according to certain rules. The study of kanban-controlled production systems can be traced back to the Toyota Production System in the 1950s. The classic kanban-controlled system was designed to realize Just-In-Time (JIT) production. Kanban-controlled production systems, though pervasively used in industry and studied for decades, are not well understood quantitatively yet. The essence of kanban-controlled production systems is to use single or multiple closed loops to provide information flow feedback using kanbans. By doing this, the systems keep tight controls over inventory levels, while providing satisfactory production rates. The goal of this research is to study the behavior of the class of manufacturing systems with multiple closed loop structures and explore the applications in design and operational control of production systems using multiple-kanban loops. To do so, stochastic mathematical models and effcient analytical methods for evaluating the performance of systems with complex structures are required.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Zhenyu, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stanley B. Gershwin.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35306

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35306