ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the controversy in generalizing the superiority among pull production control systems. It introduces a comparison method followed by some numerical examples provided in to briefly analyze the complexity in comparing the control systems. The chapter discusses that the framework proposed by Sato and Khojasteh-Ghamari is used for comparing pull production control systems in the presented example. It presents a simple serial production process controlled by constant work-in-process (CONWIP) to support the discussion and provides the numerical example. The chapter considers a simple production process with four workstations. It discusses the activity interaction diagram of this production process controlled by CONWIP. The chapter shows that configuration of parameters, such as processing time of activities, number of workers, and number of cards employed in the whole process decides the superior system in each situation. It concludes that none of the Kanban or CONWIP controls are always the superior system.
