Small batch production

 What’s a “batch”?
Batch production
 Packaged food
 Fast food
 Computers
 Cars
 Furniture
 Appliances
 Pharmaceuticals
 Clothing
Batch size impacts

 Lead time
 WIP inventory
 Quality
 Flexibility
 Material handling and setup time costs
Ultimate small batch: size = one!
Single piece flow

 Illustration

 Most practical way to produce with single

piece flow is in a workcell.
Smaller batch size yields
 Shorter LT
 Smaller WIP
 Fewer defects
 Greater scheduling flexibility
 But, more handling and setups

Conclusion: smaller batch size has many benefits.

But to realize them must reduce time/cost of
setup and material handling, and improve setup
procedures to eliminate mistakes
 Mixed-model production (MMP)
CASE IN POINT: MMP in a Pharmacy
A pharmacy receives 200 prescription orders a day.

Prescriptions fall into three categories:

• Easy (60 per day): process time = 1.5 minutes/order
• Moderate (100 per day): 3 minutes/order
• Difficult (40 per day): 6 minutes/order
• Total: 200 per day

All easy take 90 min, all moderate take 300 min, all difficult take 240 min.
Total = 630 min. = 10.5 hrs.

Pharmacy is open 11 hrs. daily.

If all orders are batched (do all easy, then all moderate, then all difficult)
• Then all the difficult orders would be delivered at end of day (and not be
available for use until the next day)
• All easy and moderate orders arriving later in the day would have to wait
until the next day.
• Thus, most prescriptions would require more than one day to fill.
 Mixed-model production (MMP)

The demand ratio for easy (E), moderate (M), and difficult (D) is 3:5:2

MMP implies filling individual prescriptions, one at a time, in the

proportion 3:5:2

The single-piece, most-mixed sequence for 3 Es, 5Ms, and 2 Ds is

MEMEMDMEMD.

Thus, repeat this sequence 20 times a day to fill all 200 orders! (i.e.,
results in 60 E’s, 100 M’s, and 40 D’s)

With this schedule the pharmacy would be able to quickly fill orders at a
smooth pace and avoid large buildups of prescriptions and aggravation
from waiting customers.

All orders can be filled on the day they are sent.