Abstract
When jobs are released to the production floor for processing in a manufacturing environment, the jobs must be moved between machines to satisfy all their processing needs. In most applications, due to the batch size of the job and other operational constraints, it is not possible to move the entire job as a single, whole unit; the job must be split into sublots called unit loads. Thus, it is the unit loads that move between machines instead of the whole job. Exceptions to this occur when the job is composed of a single workpiece, or the number of parts contained in the batch is small enough to justify handling the entire batch as a unit.
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Egbelu, P.J. (1994). Unit load design and its impact on manufacturing systems performance. In: Tanchoco, J.M.A. (eds) Material Flow Systems in Manufacturing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2498-4_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2498-4_4
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