Selection of Control Policy for Lean Manufacture Systems

There are three control policies, namely Kanban, CONWIP (constant work in process) and hybrid controls, for lean manufacture that is one of the dominant concepts of management. A difficulty in practice of lean manufacture is how to select the control policy, and it is the concern of this study. Based on the quantitative analysis of the tree control policies, a general model and eigenfunctions are derived for lean manufacture systems. The general model is solved with genetic algorithm and simulation. The comparison of the three control strategies shows that the hybrid control strategy is superior to the others.