Method of buffering critical resources in make-to-order shop floor control in manufacturing complex products

The article presents the results of research on creating a dedicated planning system and shop floor control in the conditions of make-to-order in manufacturing complex products. The research was carried out at the Marine Diesel Engines Factory of HCP S.A., Poznan. HCP S.A. is the biggest producer of high-power marine engines in Europe. The result of the research is a method for buffering critical resources in shop floor control. These methods of buffering critical resources include procedures of buffer management, (buffer configuration and optimisation), a system of disruption compensation and feedback protecting from the destructive influence of ‘wandering bottlenecks’. The simulations show that this method is more effective than the classical drum-buffer-rope production solution, according to the theory of constraints (TOC), using the first-in-first-out rule. Finally, the lead time and the level of work-in-process were about 20% lower than the solution recommended to TOC. In the final part of the article a place and a method of implementing the solution in a planning system of the enterprise are discussed.