Title: Evaluating dispatching rules for make-to-availability under simplified drum-buffer-rope: a computational experiment

Authors: Robson Flávio Castro; Roberto Fernandes Tavares Neto; Moacir Godinho Filho

Addresses: Federal University of São Carlos, Rod. Washington Luís, km 235 – SP-310 – Monjolinho, São Carlos – SP, 13565-905, Brazil ' Federal University of São Carlos, Rod. Washington Luís, km 235 – SP-310 – Monjolinho, São Carlos – SP, 13565-905, Brazil ' Federal University of São Carlos, Rod. Washington Luís, km 235 – SP-310 – Monjolinho, São Carlos – SP, 13565-905, Brazil

Abstract: This research evaluates the impact of some dispatching rules (DR) on the performance of make-to-availability (MTA) under the simplified drum-buffer-rope (S-DBR) system. S-DBR/MTA seeks to ensure the availability of finished products to meet demand, so production needs to replenish inventory quickly. The DR has an important influence on the replenishment speed, which dictates the performance of such systems. We evaluate four rules found in the literature (FIFO, AT, SPT, and SRPT), two of the S-DBR/MTA (PSP and PSP1), and six rules combining the two groups (PSP-AT, PSP-SPT, PSP - PSP1-AT, PSP1-SPT, and PSP1-SRPT) using a computational experiment. We use the following measures to evaluate the performance of such rules: service level, average inventory in the system, mean flow time, and stock rate per service level percentage. The PSP1-SPT rule gets better results than others, increasing the S-DBR/MTA performance. [Received: 17 August 2022; Accepted: 4 June 2023]

Keywords: make-to-availability; MTA; simplified drum-buffer-rope; S-DBR; theory of constraint; dispatching rule; DR; flow-shop; scheduling; work-in-process; WIP; finished goods inventory; FGI.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIE.2024.141723

European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2024 Vol.18 No.6, pp.841 - 859

Received: 17 Aug 2022
Accepted: 04 Jun 2023
Published online: 01 Oct 2024 *

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