Exploring applicability of the workload control concept

To be successful in companies, a production planning and control (PPC) concept should fit to the production environment. Essential elements of the concept should correspond with the characteristics of the production system. For classical concepts such as MRP these elements have become common sense. For example, BOM-explosion and constant lead times make MRP known to perform best in environments with high material and low capacity complexity. For many other concepts the situation is less clear. In this paper the workload control (WLC) concept is considered for which the requirements for a successful application have never been investigated. A framework is proposed to explore the applicability of WLC in small- to medium-sized make-to-order (MTO) companies. It supports an initial consideration of WLC in the first phase of a PPC selection and implementation process. As a first step in developing the framework, the inherent characteristics of the WLC concept and the relevant MTO production characteristics are identified. Confronting the indicators of the company characteristics with the WLC elements results in best-fit indications for the WLC concept. Contrarily to other PPC evaluation schemes the framework considers variability indicators besides averages. Use of this framework for a medium-sized MTO company demonstrates its suitability in getting a systematic and quick impression of the applicability of WLC. Essential elements are treated and assessed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved