Influencing factors of synchronization in manufacturing systems

Manufacturing systems exhibit two types of synchronisation phenomena: logistics and physics. Previous research has established synchronisation measures for both types and has shown that they are related to the due date performance. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the factors triggering synchronisation emergence as well as a holistic understanding of synchronisation effects on logistics performance. Thus, this research aims to further explore the relation between synchronisation, its influencing factors and its effect on logistics performance. Based on a profound literature review, we derive first hypotheses on the cause-and-effect-relationships between structural and dynamic properties of a manufacturing system and the emergence of logistics and physics synchronisation as well as logistics performance. By conducting a discrete-event simulation study on diverse manufacturing system types (line, flow shop and job shop production), we are able to test these hypotheses. We conclude that manufacturing network architecture as a structural property as well as processing time variability and system workload as dynamic properties may be exploited for an advanced and synchronisation-oriented manufacturing system design.