Manufacturing control with a push–pull approach

Kanban systems have been successfully used to reduce inventory and improve customer service in many industries. Their advantages and limitations are discussed in this paper. Although numerous models have been developed to overcome these limitations, the studies published did not consider some of the very essential characteristics of manufacturing systems and the value added to parts when the pull or push principle was applied. This paper presents a push–pull approach which pushes through certain manufacturing stages and pulls elsewhere based on the characteristics and value added at these stages. A generalized label-correcting algorithm to determine the desired stages of an IDEF3 model is developed and an industrial case study is presented. This methodology is suited for a repetitive manufacturing environment of a mixed type, i.e. job shop and flow shop, and leads to achieving the following objectives: (1) reduced in-process inventory; (2) shortened delivery lead times while maintaining or improving delivery dependability; (3) increased productivity and machine utilization.