A canonical model for the analysis of manufacturing systems

The article firstly discusses two paradigms often found in just-in-time (JIT) supply chains. In the first one, denoted as synchronousJIT, the production systems of the supplier and of the customer are strictly synchronised so that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the items produced by the two systems. In the second one, referred to as missionJIT, the supplier dispatch periodically a batch of a given part type to the customer so that a mission consists on the production and delivery of a specified quantity of parts within an agreed time frame. The two paradigms are compared in terms of the requirements regarding the reliability of the deliveries, and in terms of the design variables susceptible of being managed by system planners in order to improve that reliability, namely, the redundancy of manufacturing equipment, the dimensioning of the safety stocks and the maintenance policy. Then, the article introduces a new analytical tool-the canonical model of the production system-and shows how it can be applied in the analysis of JIT systems in line with the two paradigms above. It will also elucidate on how to obtain the canonical model and how to assess a number of relevant performance measurements regarding the production costs and the quality of service.