Simulation of two hybrid production planning and control systems: A comparative analysis

The goal of this paper is to analyze and compare the performances of two Hybrid Production Planning and Control (HPPCs) systems, namely CONWIP and Workload Control. Although several implementations of HPPCs reported excellent results, in fact, many authors have discharged the concept, arguing that these systems can only reduce manufacturing lead times and control WIP to the detriment of production rate, punctuality or service level. The paper starts from a brief review of the literature on HPPCs. Afterwards, the paper uses a common simulation model from the literature to compare two simple and easy-to-implement configurations of CONWIP and Workload Control against the baseline of a classic push system. The results of the simulations lead to important conclusions and suggest interesting improvements of simulation models and future directions of research for better understanding HPPCs.