An industrial study of the effects of batch sizes on the performance of the overall manufacturing system

Abstract The determination of batch sizes involves considering the complex relationships between the batch size and a number of other elements including manufacturing lead time, work in progress levels, and finished stock levels. Most approaches to batch size determination have used analytical approaches which become untenable when full scale practical manufacturing systems are considered. Furthermore most studies of the effects of batch size have concentrated on relatively small systems which fail to fully reflect the size and complexity of practical manufacturing systems. In this paper an actual batch manufacturing system is studied. This system consists of 78 separate work centers manufacturing 487 different part numbers with each part routing containing up to 110 operations (average 46). The shop manufactures high precision gears.