Mass Customized Large Scale Production System with Learning Curve Consideration

This paper presents the structure for modeling a large scale production system with learning curve considerations. The model will be used to develop a scheduling method that facilitates the production performance for mass customized products. Mass customization is an important manufacturing management strategy but it might lead to unnecessary production losses. Most manufacturing systems' throughput is constrained by one or more bottlenecks and the critical bottleneck may shift from one work station to another. The proposed scheduling method will consider learning curve effects and employ the concept of Shifting Bottleneck Procedure to guide production scheduling decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the throughput of large scale assembly manufacturing systems. A simulation model of a wind turbine assembly line case study is also presented to validate the capability of the proposed method.