A comparison of order release strategies in production control systems

This research investigates the performance of four order release strategies for use in production control. Two of these strategies, the constant work-in-process (WIP) and the bottleneck strategies, are developed with the use of characteristic curves which define the relationship between WIP and rate of production. A third strategy matches order releases to those orders completing production over prior time periods. The fourth strategy fixes order release at a desired level of production output. All strategies were simulated over a range of shop conditions. Results demonstrate that both the constant-WIP and bottleneck strategies are stronger performers.