Title: Enhancing the POLCA production control system by indirect load

Authors: Fernando José Gómez Paredes; Moacir Godinho Filho; Matthias Thürer; Nuno Fernandes

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil; Department of Operations Systems, Universidad Centroamericana 'José Simeón Cañas', Antiguo Cuscatlán, El Salvador ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil ' Factory Planning and Intralogistic, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany ' Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal; AALGORITMI Research Unit, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Abstract: Paired-cell overlapping loops of cards with authorisation (POLCA) is a card-based production control system (PCS). The original POLCA system uses authorisation dates based on an MRP list to release jobs to the shop. However, when jobs present high variability in processing times, POLCA may refuse a job to start production on a station, even if available capacity exists, negatively impacting performance. To limit this problem, we adapt POLCA to consider the stations' indirect load (IL) at job release to gain flexibility. We compare the mechanisms through simulation experiments. Results suggest that the indirect load mechanism helps this system to improve operational performance, especially concerning job throughput times and customer delivery time. This research implies that managers should consider the indirect load at stations when using POLCA for production control in a lean production context with high variability.

Keywords: production control; POLCA; IL-POLC; indirect workload; order release.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2026.151749

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2026 Vol.53 No.2, pp.158 - 186

Received: 24 Aug 2023
Accepted: 08 Sep 2023
Published online: 18 Feb 2026 *

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