Title: Evaluating COBACABANA, COBA-POLCA, and IL-POLC in a make-to-order shop: an assessment by simulation

Authors: Fernando José Gómez Paredes; Mario Henrique Bueno Moreira Callefi; Moacir Godinho Filho; Matthias Thürer; Nuno Octávio Fernandes

Addresses: UFMS, Campus Três Lagoas, Av. Ranulpho Marques Leal, 3484 – Distrito Industrial II, Três Lagoas – MS, 79613-000, Brazil; Department of Operations Systems, Universidad Centroamericana 'José Simeón Cañas', El Salvador, Blvr de los Próceres, s/n, San Salvador, El Salvador; Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, Washington Luís Road, S/n, São Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil ' Chair of Factory Planning and Intralogistics, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09125, Chemnitz, Germany ' Department of Supply Chain Management and Decision Sciences, EM Normandie Business School, Metis Lab, 20 Quai Frissard, 76600 Le Havre, France; Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, Washington Luís Road, S/n, São Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil ' Chair of Factory Planning and Intralogistics, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09125, Chemnitz, Germany ' School of Technology (ESTCB), Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal

Abstract: In the context of make-to-order production, the challenge for production control systems (PCS) is to manage order release and capacity flow efficiently. This study proposes the indirect load paired-cell overlapping loops of cards (IL-POLC) method, integrating indirect load and POLC cards. Performance comparisons were conducted through simulation in a high-variety make-to-order shop, revealing that COBACABANA excels with the ERD rule, significantly reducing shop floor throughput time (SFTT). COBA-POLCA is a viable option with careful workload norm selection, and IL-POLC minimises other impacts. For the capacity slack rule, COBACABANA prioritises SFTT, while COBA-POLCA balances performance. In a card-based setup, COBACABANA reduces SFTT but may impact other measures.

Keywords: production control; job shop; card-based system; indirect load; POLCA; production control systems; PCS; shop floor throughput time; SFTT.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2026.155581

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2026 Vol.48 No.3, pp.404 - 428

Received: 27 Oct 2023
Accepted: 29 Nov 2023
Published online: 06 Aug 2026 *

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