IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/uiiexx/v44y2012i10p894-914.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fixed task zone chaining: worker coordination and zone design for inexpensive cross-training in serial CONWIP lines

Author

Listed:
  • Hoda Parvin
  • Mark Van Oyen
  • Dimitrios Pandelis
  • Damon Williams
  • Junghee Lee

Abstract

This work introduces a new canonical model of worker cross-training, called a Fixed Task Zone Chain (FTZC), as a special type of zone-based cross-training and develops a methodology to employ it in U-shaped CONstant Work In Process (CONWIP) lines. The FTZC approach is intended to address lines with more stations than workers in environments where extensive cross-training is prohibitive. It incorporates a two-skill chain to cross-train one skill at each end of each zone; however, tasks at the interior of a zone are not cross-trained. A heuristic dynamic control policy is developed that maximizes the line’s throughput given a zone structure. Some useful properties of the optimal policy are provided as a basis for a heuristic control policy that yields high throughput. The performance of an FTZC system is contingent upon the choice of zone structure; therefore, the zone assignment (ZonA) algorithm is created to design the zone structure to achieve high throughput levels. Sufficient conditions which guarantee that the line is balanceable through ZonA are derived. Benchmarking over a test suite supports the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic worker control policy as well as the ZonA algorithm, and its performance is compared with other paradigms.

Suggested Citation

  • Hoda Parvin & Mark Van Oyen & Dimitrios Pandelis & Damon Williams & Junghee Lee, 2012. "Fixed task zone chaining: worker coordination and zone design for inexpensive cross-training in serial CONWIP lines," IISE Transactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 894-914.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:uiiexx:v:44:y:2012:i:10:p:894-914
    DOI: 10.1080/0740817X.2012.668264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0740817X.2012.668264
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0740817X.2012.668264?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Federica Costa & Matthias Thürer & Alberto Portioli-Staudacher, 2023. "Heterogeneous worker multi-functionality and efficiency in dual resource constrained manufacturing lines: an assessment by simulation," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 1476-1489, September.
    2. Dimitrios G. Pandelis, 2014. "Optimal control of noncollaborative servers in two‐stage tandem queueing systems," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(6), pages 435-446, September.
    3. Henao, César Augusto & Mercado, Yessica Andrea & González, Virginia I. & Lüer-Villagra, Armin, 2023. "Multiskilled personnel assignment with k-chaining considering the learning-forgetting phenomena," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:uiiexx:v:44:y:2012:i:10:p:894-914. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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 Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/uiie .

    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.