Generic model for the productivity improvement by the application of theory of constraints

Productivity improvement is inevitable to any firm in order to remain competitive in market place. It enables the firm to meet its obligations to workers and share holders. Various techniques have been proposed for productivity improvement which focus at the core level on the improvement of the process by research and development and physical means of productivity. However, such techniques demand substantial investment in highly trained technical staff and need infrastructures such as plant and equipment. An alternative technique is to improve the method of operation to ensure that the same product can be manufactured in lesser time with existing resources. Theory of Constraints (TOC) exactly addresses this issue which is a general manufacturing philosophy based on understanding the manufacturing process and identifying the constraints that limit the system from achieving higher performance or meeting goals. In this paper, the authors have developed and implemented a generic model for identifying constrained resources in a production line and have proposed various scenarios for overcoming the constraints resulting in synchronous manufacturing of a production line. The configuration information is stored in an XML file which can be configurable by an end user and is parsed using Microsoft's XML parser. In order to overcome constraints in production the criteria for selection of various techniques such as implementing additional resources of same type, shift few operations to a new machine, time buffer are proposed and their impact on system WIP and profit are investigated. The production line before and after the application of TOC are presented.