The Determination of In‐Process Inventory and Manufacturing Lead Time in Multi‐Stage Production Systems

Abstract

In most manufacturing systems, a number of production stages are involved between which some in‐process inventory usually occurs. This inventory imposes a further cost on the overall system, not only in terms of investment charges but also shop floor congestion, additional material handling charges and loss of floor space. In attempting to optimise this in‐process inventory a necessary balance must be obtained with the associated manufacturing lead time. A mathematical model is devised to achieve the above in a multi‐stage production system and this is demonstrated by application to a set of actual industrial data.