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.