IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v36y2006i1p6-25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

General Motors Increases Its Production Throughput

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey M. Alden

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-106-359, 30500 Mound Road, Warren, Michigan 48090)

  • Lawrence D. Burns

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-106-EX2, 30500 Mound Road, Warren, Michigan 48090)

  • Theodore Costy

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-206-325, 30009 Van Dyke Avenue, Warren, Michigan 48090)

  • Richard D. Hutton

    (General Motors Europe, International Technical Development Center, IPC 30-06, D-65423 Rüsselsheim, Germany)

  • Craig A. Jackson

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-106-359, 30500 Mound Road, Warren, Michigan 48090)

  • David S. Kim

    (Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Oregon State University, 121 Covell Hall, Corvallis, Oregon 97331)

  • Kevin A. Kohls

    (Soar Technology, Inc., 3600 Green Court, Suite 600, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105)

  • Jonathan H. Owen

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-106-359, 30500 Mound Road, Warren, Michigan 48090)

  • Mark A. Turnquist

    (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, 309 Hollister Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853)

  • David J. Vander Veen

    (General Motors Corporation, Mail Code 480-734-214, 30003 Van Dyke Road, Warren, Michigan 48093)

Abstract

In the late 1980s, General Motors Corporation (GM) initiated a long-term project to predict and improve the throughput performance of its production lines to increase productivity throughout its manufacturing operations and provide GM with a strategic competitive advantage. GM quantified throughput performance and focused improvement efforts in the design and operations of its manufacturing systems through coordinated activities in three areas: (1) it developed algorithms for estimating throughput performance, identifying bottlenecks, and optimizing buffer allocation, (2) it installed real-time plant-floor data-collection systems to support the algorithms, and (3) it established common processes for identifying opportunities and implementing performance improvements. Through these activities, GM has increased revenue and saved over $2.1 billion in over 30 vehicle plants and 10 countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey M. Alden & Lawrence D. Burns & Theodore Costy & Richard D. Hutton & Craig A. Jackson & David S. Kim & Kevin A. Kohls & Jonathan H. Owen & Mark A. Turnquist & David J. Vander Veen, 2006. "General Motors Increases Its Production Throughput," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 6-25, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:36:y:2006:i:1:p:6-25
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.1050.0181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.1050.0181
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.1050.0181?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Papadopoulos, H. T. & Heavey, C., 1996. "Queueing theory in manufacturing systems analysis and design: A classification of models for production and transfer lines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-27, July.
    2. Eginhard J. Muth, 1979. "The Reversibility Property of Production Lines," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 152-158, February.
    3. Stanley B. Gershwin, 1987. "An Efficient Decomposition Method for the Approximate Evaluation of Tandem Queues with Finite Storage Space and Blocking," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 291-305, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Scheinker & Margaret L. Brandeau, 2020. "Implementing Analytics Projects in a Hospital: Successes, Failures, and Opportunities," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 176-189, May.
    2. Abolhassani, Amir & James Harner, E. & Jaridi, Majid, 2019. "Empirical analysis of productivity enhancement strategies in the North American automotive industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 140-159.
    3. Zhiyang Jia & Liang Zhang & Jorge Arinez & Guoxian Xiao, 2016. "Performance analysis for serial production lines with Bernoulli Machines and Real-time WIP-based Machine switch-on/off control," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(21), pages 6285-6301, November.
    4. Seog-Chan Oh & Jaemin Shin, 2021. "The Assessment of Car Making Plants with an Integrated Stochastic Frontier Analysis Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Marcello Colledani & Stanley Gershwin, 2013. "A decomposition method for approximate evaluation of continuous flow multi-stage lines with general Markovian machines," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 209(1), pages 5-40, October.
    6. Elahi, Mirza M. Lutfe & Rajpurohit, Karthik & Rosenberger, Jay M. & Zaruba, Gergely & Priest, John, 2015. "Optimizing real-time vehicle sequencing of a paint shop conveyor system," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 61-72.
    7. Anandasivam Gopal & Manu Goyal & Serguei Netessine & Matthew Reindorp, 2013. "The Impact of New Product Introduction on Plant Productivity in the North American Automotive Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(10), pages 2217-2236, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Konstantinos S. Boulas & Georgios D. Dounias & Chrissoleon T. Papadopoulos, 2023. "A hybrid evolutionary algorithm approach for estimating the throughput of short reliable approximately balanced production lines," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 823-852, February.
    2. Papadopoulos, H. T. & Heavey, C., 1996. "Queueing theory in manufacturing systems analysis and design: A classification of models for production and transfer lines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-27, July.
    3. Papadopoulos, H. T. & Vidalis, M. I., 2001. "Minimizing WIP inventory in reliable production lines," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 185-197, March.
    4. Belmansour, Ahmed-Tidjani & Nourelfath, Mustapha, 2010. "An aggregation method for performance evaluation of a tandem homogenous production line with machines having multiple failure modes," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1193-1201.
    5. Elisa Gebennini & Andrea Grassi & Cesare Fantuzzi & Stanley Gershwin & Irvin Schick, 2013. "Discrete time model for two-machine one-buffer transfer lines with restart policy," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 209(1), pages 41-65, October.
    6. Kiesmüller, G.P. & Sachs, F.E., 2020. "Spare parts or buffer? How to design a transfer line with unreliable machines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 121-134.
    7. Sachs, F.E. & Helber, S. & Kiesmüller, G.P., 2022. "Evaluation of Unreliable Flow Lines with Limited Buffer Capacities and Spare Part Provisioning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 544-559.
    8. Osorio, Carolina & Bierlaire, Michel, 2012. "A tractable analytical model for large-scale congested protein synthesis networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 219(3), pages 588-597.
    9. Jean-Sébastien Tancrez, 2020. "A decomposition method for assembly/disassembly systems with blocking and general distributions," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 272-296, June.
    10. Beixin Xia & Binghai Zhou & Ci Chen & Lifeng Xi, 2016. "A generalized-exponential decomposition method for the analysis of inhomogeneous assembly/disassembly systems with unreliable machines and finite buffers," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 765-779, August.
    11. Alain Patchong & Thierry Lemoine & Gilles Kern, 2003. "Improving Car Body Production at PSA Peugeot Citroën," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 36-49, February.
    12. Eva K. Lee & Siddhartha Maheshwary & Jacquelyn Mason & William Glisson, 2006. "Large-Scale Dispensing for Emergency Response to Bioterrorism and Infectious-Disease Outbreak," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 591-607, December.
    13. Korporaal, R. & Ridder, A.A.N. & Kloprogge, P. & Dekker, R., 1999. "Capacity planning of prisons in the Netherlands," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 9909-/A, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    14. Ünsal Özdoğru & Tayfur Altiok, 2015. "Continuous material flow systems: analysis of marine ports handling bulk materials," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 231(1), pages 79-104, August.
    15. Dhouib, K. & Gharbi, A. & Landolsi, N., 2009. "Throughput assessment of mixed-model flexible transfer lines with unreliable machines," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 619-627, December.
    16. George Liberopoulos & George Kozanidis & Panagiotis Tsarouhas, 2007. "Performance Evaluation of an Automatic Transfer Line with WIP Scrapping During Long Failures," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 62-83, December.
    17. Yaghoubi, Saeed & Noori, Siamak & Azaron, Amir & Fynes, Brian, 2015. "Resource allocation in multi-class dynamic PERT networks with finite capacity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 247(3), pages 879-894.
    18. Sumi Kim & Seongmoon Kim, 2015. "Differentiated waiting time management according to patient class in an emergency care center using an open Jackson network integrated with pooling and prioritizing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 230(1), pages 35-55, July.
    19. Andrea Matta & Francesca Simone, 2016. "Analysis of two-machine lines with finite buffer, operation-dependent and time-dependent failure modes," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 1850-1862, March.
    20. Azaron, Amir & Katagiri, Hideki & Kato, Kosuke & Sakawa, Masatoshi, 2006. "Modelling complex assemblies as a queueing network for lead time control," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(1), pages 150-168, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:36:y:2006:i:1:p:6-25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.