Sagredo-López, Alma P.

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Performance measures for a system managed using backflushing: medical device manufacturing's case
(2013) Sagredo-López, Alma P.; Rodríguez-Álamo, Betzabé; College of Engineering; Seijo Vidal, Roberto; Cesaní Vázquez, Viviana I.; Department of Industrial Engineering; Figueroa Medina, Carmen I.
Lean Manufacturing philosophy is centered in the idea of eliminating waste, such as unnecessary transactions. It is common for manufacturers to track every material movement, creating with each movement a transaction. Backflushing techniques are employed in order to reduce the number of transactions triggering them only in two specific stages: at the entrance of material to the system and at the exit of products from the system. This technique is better suited for products with small lead times. Motivated by a medical device manufacturing facility with long lead times, our work provides the project site an inventory tracking system that estimates the current usage of material keeping backflushing’s spirit. A simulation model was developed gathering the characteristics of the current system relevant to the study. The inventory tracking system estimates work in progress inventory through weighted average of scrap. The system is accurate with less than 10% of error.