Push versus pull mini-demonstration: A continuation of the mini-demonstration with duplos or ‘The Running of the Dogs – Part II’

In a previous article, I dicussed an effective mini-demonstration to teach students assembly line balancing. In this article, we discuss another use of this same assembly to demonstrate traditional assembly line (push) versus Just-In-Time (pull) manufacturing concepts. Although it is recommended for continuity in the classroom that the instructor utilize both mini-demonstrations, the instructor may choose to perform just one of the mini-demonstrations. This activity offers a visual, experiential teaching method, can be used in graduate and undergraduate courses, encourages student participation and learning, allows for efficient use of valuable classroom time (15 to 20 minutes of classroom time), can be used with small or large class sizes, and can be a continuation of the assembly line balancing mini-demonstration. The push versus pull mini-demonstration has been extremely well received (92.89% favor) in a classroom of over 844 graduate and undergraduate students.