Performance improvements in horizontally integrated production networks through real-time rescheduling in the event of disruptions

Rescheduling is a frequently used reactive strategy in order to limit the effects of disruptions on throughput times in multi-stage production processes. However, organizational deficits often cause delays in the information on disruptions, so rescheduling cannot limit disruption effects on throughput times optimally. Our approach strives for an investigation of possible performance improvements in multi-stage production processes enabled by realtime rescheduling in the event of disruptions. We developed a methodology whereby we could measure these possible performance improvements. For this purpose, we created and implemented a simulation model of a multi-stage production process. We defined system parameters and varied factors according to our experiment design, such as information delay, lot sizes and disruption durations. The simulation results were plotted and evaluated using DoE methodology. Dependent on the factor settings, we were able to prove large improvements by real-time rescheduling regarding the absorption of disruption effects in our experiments.