Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies

Manufacturing excellence, nowadays, offers the compet1t1ve advantage for all manufacturing industries. To achieve this excellence, the implementation of right manufacturing philosophy is very important. The philosophies like MRP II and JIT are applied in many industries. Success is achieved in some of them and failures are also reported somewhere. MRP II is basically a planning tool, which has nothing to do with shop floor execution whereas JIT is the shop floor execution tool. Both have the same objective to produce the right kind of product at the right quantity at the right time. There is a scope of integrating these two philosophies and to achieve the best out of each. In this study, MRP II and JIT are studied extensively and their scope and limitations are found out. The rationale and possible areas of integration are also discussed. Ultimately, an idea of hybrid structure is developed. A mathematical model has been developed to find out the total cost arising from inventory and delay in supply for pure push, pure pull and integrated push and pull system. A case study has been carried out to in order to find out which system is the most economical to run the factory. The processing line for the product under case study is simulated in order to find out queue sizes and waiting times. The result of the study says that the most economical and practical way to run the factory is integrated push and pull system.