A review of optimisation models of Kanban-based production systems

This paper deals with the Kanban method of production control used initially by Toyota Motors to replace traditional reorder point and economic lot size techniques. The method has had considerable practical success and various researchers have developed models to help production planners to choose various parameters associated with the method, principally the number of Kanban cards at a workstation and the size of the Kanban-lots. This paper reviews optimisation models of Kanban-based systems covering serial production lines, bottleneck workstations, and assembly job-shop production.