Simulating the change from a push to pull production system

This paper will document the initial discrete-event simulation performed to study a proposed change from a push to a pull system in an existing manufacturing company. The system is characterised by five machine lines with intermediate buffers, and five major part groupings. A simulation model has been developed to mimic the flow of kanban cards in the physical system, by using a series of requests that propagate back through the facility, which the machines must respond to. The customer
demand therefore controls the level of activity in the plant. The results of the initial modelling steps will be presented in this paper, especially the impact of kanban lot size and demand variability on the output and stability of the production system, from which a set of future work is proposed.