ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on pull production—its methods, advantages, and limitations, and how it compares with the more traditional form of mass production, called push production. The purpose of production control is to ensure that production output closely conforms to demand. Pull production is a way of controlling a production process and reacting quickly to changes without relying on inventory. Production and movement of material through a pull process are contingent on signals coming from downstream. The chapter describes various pull methods for controlling inventories and authorizing production, including Kanban, the system developed by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota. In push production, materials are processed at each workstation in batches according to a schedule, and then moved downstream to the next workstation where they are processed again according to a schedule. Temporary card is issued whenever production must temporarily deviate from the normal pull pattern.
