A simulation analysis of the effectiveness of reducing the degree of labor division in enhancing just-in-time robustness to product design changes

Frequent changes in a product's design add an important source of instability to the production operations. The disruptive impact of design changes becomes even more pronounced when the mode of operation is based upon the principles of just-in-time production (in particular, when operating with minimal buffer inventories).;One potential approach to enhancing the robustness of a JIT production system to product design changes is to reduce the total level of instability in the system by spreading the variability over fewer, more flexible workers. This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of broadening the workers' task assignments (i.e. of reducing the degree of labor division) in enhancing the robustness of a JIT system to the disruptive effect of frequent changes in product design.;First, a conceptual model of the production system and its operating environment was developed. This conceptual model was then translated into a FORTRAN-based simulation program. The simulation model was used to determine the relative performance benefit of reducing the degree of labor division under several operating environments.;The results of the experimental analysis indicate that reducing the degree of labor division improves throughput performance when the design of the product is highly unstable. Furthermore, the relative performance benefit becomes significantly larger as the product is released earlier into full-scale production. Finally, the performance benefit tends to decrease over time as the product matures and its design stabilizes.;The experimental analysis also shows that there is a significant performance benefit to reducing the degree of labor division when the level of processing time variability is high. In addition, the results of the study indicate that achieving high quality production mitigates the disruptive effect of design changes. In particular, it is found that poor quality levels tend to compound the negative impact of design changes on performance.;The dissertation concludes with an analysis of the theoretical contributions of the research, and with an assessment of the managerial implications of the experimental findings.