HOW DO QUANTITY AND QUALITY REALLY INTERACT? PRECISE MODELS INSTEAD OF STRONG OPINIONS

Two main concerns of all manufacturers are quantity (How much is produced and when is it produced?) and quality (How well is it produced?).There is much existing manufacturing literature on quantity, and there are strategies that emphasize quantity. There is also a large literature on quality, and strategies have been developed to enhance quality. However, these issues should not be considered separately: quantity-oriented strategies affect quality, and quality strategies have an impact on quantity. But there is an important gap: there is little literature that deals with both together, and little that considers quality in a systems context.In this talk, we analyze how production system design, quality, and productivity are inter-related in small production systems. We show how inventory capacity can influence system yield and productivity, sometimes in counter-intuitive ways. We also discuss a variety of other problems that we have recently begun to investigate.