Adapting workload control for job shops with high routing complexity

A relevant segment of job shop environments has to cope with specific routing complexity. When order routings are long or assembly structures exist, performance problems arise in the application of traditional job shop control concepts based on workload control (WLC). This paper investigates how to adapt the WLC concept to the needs of these job shops. A first review of literature provides only few studies considering long or assembly type routings. Consequently field research is executed, analyzing and capitalizing the influences of a control approach applied in a successful company. The derived guidelines for adaptation of the WLC concept aim at improving the synergy between controlled release, to avoid irresolvable delays at early stages, and priority dispatching at later stages of the long order routings. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.