Influence of Production Flow Management Methods on an Assembly Line Supplied on Stock

The present paper is a continuation of a larger study of the authors, which consists of an analysis on the performances of several production systems. In this paper it is analyzed the influences of the method of managing the flows, the method of production programing and the clients demand on performance indicators of a multiproduct assembly line supplied on stock. The assembly line is designed to produce two types of similar products and is made of 5 workstations with mainly manual activities, which are supplied with parts on a stock based method. The performance indicators chosen for analysis were: average work in process, cost per unit, systems reactivity to client demand and throughput. The values of these indicators were obtained by simulating the assembly lines functioning in different experimental conditions, determined of the variation of above mentioned variables, by using ARENA software. The obtained results were interpreted and structured, in a manner to help the process managers to take adequate decisions considering the wanted objectives.