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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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A major challenge in designing and controlling flow lines is to achieve high customer service level while stay lean. Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing approach has triggered various 'pull production system', such as CONWIP or Kanban control, that emphasizes on response to demand rather than forecasts.
In this dissertation, we identified, documented the anatomy of various pull type control policies and compared their performances. Based on the analysis, we designed a new class of control policy called Extended CONWIP Kanban control (ECK). We developed a state space comparison methodology to compare various policies with that of optimum solution. Our analysis reveals that our ECK policy provides the most adjustment flexibility toward the optimum. Our simulation and case study verify the advantages and utilities of the ECK policy. Beside the cost savings, another major advantage of the ECK policy is its robustness. That is, the total cost of the ECK policy is less sensitive to demand or system variations.
