Title: Optimal cycle length and number of inspections in imperfect production processes with investment on setup cost reduction and quality improvement

Authors: Mallika Parveen, T.V.V.L.N. Rao

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, BITS Pilani Dubai, International Academic City, Post Box No. 500022, Dubai, UAE. ' Mechanical Engineering Group, BITS Pilani, India

Abstract: The work presented in this paper is derived from an existing model for an imperfect process model (Moon et al., 2002) under constraint of setup time, and the total production time per cycle is equal to the cycle length. This paper considers the investment in setup cost reduction and quality improvement in: imperfect production process; imperfect production process with inspection and restoration. A solution algorithm using the Lagrangian approach with the objective of minimising the expected total cost is developed to simultaneously solve the cycle length, number of inspections, setup reduction and quality improvement for different products. Numerical examples are used to illustrate comparison of the performances with investment in setup cost reduction and quality improvement. [Received 11 August 2007; Revised 20 December 2007; Accepted 4 May 2008]

Keywords: EPQ; economic production quantity; lot sizing; imperfect production process; setup cost reduction; quality improvement; capacity constraints; common cycle approach; time-varying lot sizes approach; inspection; restoration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2009.022741

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2009 Vol.4 No.1, pp.17 - 36

Published online: 25 Jan 2009 *

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