Effects of lot-splitting under various routing strategies

Lot-splitting involves the possibility of lot sizes at intermediate processing steps being less than the production release of the finished good. However, the limited research in this area has not been sufficient to counter the conventional wisdom that lot-splitting (1) is appropriate only where there are sophisticated control mechanisms, and (2) may actually create a log jam on machines where there is already a bottleneck because of the additional set-ups required. This article includes a lot-splitting provision as an extension of a published stdy of alternate routing strategies in a job shop environment. The lot-splitting rule is very simple and tractable in any job shop; its performance is compared with the situation where, under identical conditions, the lot-splitting provision is removed.