Kanban-Controlled Manufacturing Systems

5th Werner Kern Award for Productivity Research 2005

Kanban control systems bear a great potential to significantly improve operations. A company may reap the full benefits of kanban control only after determining an optimal or near-optimal system configuration. To do that, methods are needed to evaluate the performance and operating costs of individual system configurations. We propose an innovative construction-kit approach that enables us to build stochastic analytical models of a large class of single- and multi-product kanban systems. The presented construction-kit approach may be extended and augmented in various directions.

Résumé

5th Werner Kern Award for Productivity Research 2005

Kanban control systems bear a great potential to significantly improve operations. A company may reap the full benefits of kanban control only after determining an optimal or near-optimal system configuration. To do that, methods are needed to evaluate the performance and operating costs of individual system configurations. We propose an innovative construction-kit approach that enables us to build stochastic analytical models of a large class of single- and multi-product kanban systems. The presented construction-kit approach may be extended and augmented in various directions.

Contenu
Subject and Outline.- Kanban-Controlled Manufacturing Systems: Basic Version and Variations.- Literature Review: Models of Kanban Systems.- New Models of Kanban Systems: A Construction-Kit Approach.- Components: Basic Building Blocks.- Subassemblies: Models of Multi-Product Manufacturing Facilities.- Composite Models: Models of Multi-Stage Kanban Systems.- Extended Application: Models of Systems with Multi-Product Manufacturing Facilities in Series.- Accuracy of the Models: Numerical Results.- Application of the Models: Analysis of System Behavior.- Summary and Directions for Future Research.