Lead time reduction : machine interference problem impact on lead time

Abstract

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important keys for surviving in a high competition markets. Short lead time expectation by customers drives managers of production systems to be eager to continually improve and develop their systems. The following work of thesis considers an appropriate method for lead time reduction in many industrials where one operator operates several machines. Machine interference problem (MIP) has a significant role in those production systems. Therefore, a revised method for allocating the optimum number of similar machines to operators, developed by Hadad and Keren had been used to find the optimum number of machines should be assigned for each operator to improve MIP; Two objective used to get the optimum number of machines per operator maximizing profit and minimizing cost. A quantitative analysis of average service time and run time had been calculated to get the most accurate results before applying them in the revised allocating model. This method used to increase the machine utilization, decrease average cycle time and increase productivity to decrease lead time and increase customer satisfaction. A real case study illustrates the applicability of the proposed method for lead time reduction. The final finding shows increases of machine utilization, productivity which reduce lead time and increase customer satisfaction.