As the economy begins to refocus, so too do manufacturers. More and more analysts and industry experts are writing about “the factory of the future” and the enablement of demand-driven systems to drive velocity and on-time production while effectively managing the inevitable constraints.
Legacy ERP and Push-based MRP systems are hard-pressed to support the Lean and demand-driven Pull-based production environments of today.
And while Pullbased systems are more and more becoming a way to bridge the old and the new, they require a shift in philosophy as well as a shift in IT systems. Flexible, plug-in solutions like Kanban systems, however, are a seemingly efficient (and non-disruptive) way to bridge the gap for those looking to gain greater control by implementing or expanding upon Lean principles.
This is the first in a series of papers exploring the nature of Pull-based manufacturing systems and specifically, Kanban systems. The focus of this paper is at the system, or workflow level, while subsequent publications will review Pull/Kanban systems from a management, customer and competitive standpoint. After reading this paper, you will have a good understanding of both Pull and Push-based manufacturing systems and your choices for systems within a Pull environment. After reading the collection of papers, you should have a 360-degree perspective of the impact of a Pull/Kanban system in an organization.