Shellyanne Wilson and Nazma Ali
Mix flexibility is a critical manufacturing flexibility type needed to produce a company's range of products. Oftentimes, multiple products are produced on shared resources which…
Abstract
Purpose
Mix flexibility is a critical manufacturing flexibility type needed to produce a company's range of products. Oftentimes, multiple products are produced on shared resources which require coordination mechanisms to ensure their effective utilization. This paper aims to explore the applicability of the product wheel concept as a coordination mechanism that can be used to manage shared resources in operational mix flexibility achievement in process industries.
Design/methodology/approach
The product wheel concept is a construct from the theory of lean manufacturing adoption in process industries. This construct is applied as a sequencing coordination mechanism, where similar products are grouped together to run consecutively in a production schedule. A single case study is used to illustrate the development and evaluation of a product wheel design.
Findings
The results show that the product wheel concept does achieve the aim of grouping similar products in the production schedule, and, as such, can be used to improve the production planning process through the reduction of the number of time-intensive changeovers without sacrificing product availability to meet customer demand. The product wheel, however, is not a mathematical optimization technique; but is instead a heuristic technique which requires the use of judgment and experience to achieve an optimal design.
Originality/value
A theoretical contribution to the study of mix flexibility has been made, where the application of the product wheel construct presents a novel approach to the study of operational mix flexibility achievement, via the sequencing of products on shared manufacturing resources.
Details
Keywords
Abdul Wahab, Amer Rasheed, Rab Nawaz and Nazma Javaid
The purpose of this paper is to undertake an unsteady flow problem of an anomalous Maxwell fluid. The flow takes place between two side walls over a plate perpendicular to them…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to undertake an unsteady flow problem of an anomalous Maxwell fluid. The flow takes place between two side walls over a plate perpendicular to them and is driven by a sudden pressure force with constant gradient.
Design/methodology/approach
A finite element method is invoked and is blended with a finite difference method for left Caputo fractional time derivatives in order to study the anomalous dynamics of the fluid.
Findings
A numerical scheme for the constitutive equations of the prescribed flow in order to approximate the velocity field is designed. The graphical results to draw different physical conclusions on the flow problem are also presented.
Originality/value
A rigorous mathematical exposition of the numerical scheme is provided and the results are valid for large values of the parameters.