In Process Kanban Optimization for a Manufacturing Simulation

Identifying and investigating the need for optimal In Process Kanbans (IPKs) for a complex manufacturing environment is the need of the time. Multiple simulations are required to arrive at the number of Kanbans required and the amount of part quantities it needs to store to achieve maximum throughput. In house developed tool is used to simulate the manufacturing system. The tool works on exhaustive search optimization algorithm to maximize the throughput of the manufacturing system by maintaining the minimum cost of the system. The location and size of the IPK is optimized using this tool. Since no analytical solution is possible we use optimization algorithms in conjunction with the simulation tool. We demonstrate our approach in this paper with the help of a case study. We observe with regards to the case study, that the optimal location of the IPK is vital to achieve maximum throughput as compared to the optimal size of the IPK.