25 Overview to Repetitive Manufacturing

This chapter contains these topics:

Section 25.1, "Objectives"
Section 25.2, "About Repetitive Manufacturing"

25.1 Objectives

To develop a workbench to schedule production
To support production capacity and load using units per hour as well as hours per unit
To define shop floor calendars by shift and production line
To allow multiple replenishment points for a production line
To allow electronic kanban control at consuming and supplying locations

25.2 About Repetitive Manufacturing

Repetitive manufacturing dedicates entire production lines to a family of products. These product families share similar components and routings. Generally these products are manufactured in a continuous process which requires less inventory movement to and from the production line. Work center setup and changeover times between related products are kept to a minimum.

Repetitive environments define production in terms of units per hour. The time spent at the operational level might or might not be important. Therefore, the ability to set up line capacity and define routings in units per hour is necessary. The fundamental basis for backscheduling and capacity planning is hours. To view information in units, the system uses a conversion factor defined at the work center level.

The driving force for repetitive manufacturing is demand. Scheduling production lines requires tools to schedule, sequence, and balance production based on the capacity for each production line.

While requirements for material is driven by demand, movement is controlled by visual cues called kanbans. Kanbans are predetermined quantities of components at specified locations on the production line. They are designed to minimize work-in-process inventories.

Repetitive Manufacturing includes the following tasks:

Enter rates
Schedule rates
Complete rates
Review information
Process kanbans
Close rates