COBACABANA: a real industrial application in a job shop system

Abstract

COntrol of BAlance by CArd-BAsed NAvigation (COBACABANA) is a card-based system for job shop control. This paper presents a real industrial application of COBACABANA aimed at solving production control problems in an Italian manufacturer of valves and flanges, configured as a job shop system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first industrial implementation of COBACABANA. Although COBACABANA can be extended to estimating delivery time allowances, this research focuses only on its shop floor control mechanism. In the case study, the COBACABANA boards and cards are carefully reviewed. The criticalities and limitations of traditional COBACABANA are fully explored and, subsequently, two new boards and a new form are introduced to facilitate its practicality and ease of implementation. The new tools enable planners to better monitor the pre-shop pool status and the progress of orders.

Keywords:

• COBACABANA
• job shop
• workload control
• make to order
• visual management

Acknowledgments

Authors carefully thank Mr. Stefano Giusti for his excellent job assisting us in the implementation of COBACABANA during his Master thesis in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pisa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcello Braglia

M. Braglia graduated (with distinction) in 1988 in Electronic Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. Since 1995, he has been a researcher in Mechanical Technology and Production Systems at the Università degli Studi di Brescia. Since 2002, he has been a full professor in Industrial Plants at the Università di Pisa. His research activities mainly concern maintenance, reliability, production planning, logistics and statistical quality control. He is the author of about 150 technical papers published in national and international journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of ANIMP (National Association on Industrial Plants) and AIDI (National Association of Academicians on Industrial Plants).

Leonardo Marrazzini

L Marrazzini graduated in 2016 in Mechanical Engineering (110/110) at the University of Pisa. In 2020, he obtained a PhD degree in Industrial Engineering (cum Laude) at the University of Pisa. At present, he is a postdoctoral researcher in the same university. His research activities mainly concern the adaptation of the Lean Manufacturing principles to ETO production environments. In particular, the goal of the research is to develop techniques and models to support various company operations.

Luca Padellini

L. Padellini graduated in 2018 in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pisa. In the same year, he began his PhD studies in Smart Industry within the same University. His research activities mainly concern the digitalisation of the supply chain in the Tuscan Fashion district. His research focuses on models and techniques able to improve the communication and the transfer of information between the members of the supply chain.