ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the key features of Paired-cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Authorization (POLCA). POLCA is designed to address two significant trends in the manufacturing world today. The first is that, in keeping with the latest thinking on effective organizational structures, companies are reorganizing their shop floor operations into manufacturing cells, which we will henceforth refer to simply as cells. The second trend addressed by POLCA is that companies are experiencing demand for smaller and smaller order quantities of products, and beyond that, for individually customized products with an order quantity of one. POLCA is based on the fundamental recognition that a company operating in the HMLVC environment that has decided to reorganize its shop floor into cells will typically have a structure. This example describes a hypothetical company, Madison Machining Corporation that is a contract manufacturer supplying machined parts to several Original Equipment Manufacturers.
