An Extension of JIT Production to Improve Production Efficiency as a Total System

Abstract

This paper discusses a novel idea to integrate a whole production system that involves JIT (Just-In-Time) production downstream. If we apply conventional JIT technology to such a production system, it is difficult to keep production efficiency because production smoothing is not kept between processes with different production styles and production lead-times. To cope with this difficulty, we propose a new type of JIT production system in which scheduling is decided using a heuristic algorithm instead of conventional JIT production. Through computer simulations, we evaluate the proposed JIT production system regarding two cases; i. e., lot process and painting process.