ABSTRACT
Manufacturing is the crucial element of the supply chain, as it is the element of the supply chain that produces the product to be distributed to the customer. Every-Product-Every-Interval (EPEI) is a manufacturing concept that would be described as a best practice as an element of most manufacturing strategies; actually, for many manufacturing strategies, EPEI is the prime premise of the strategy. Most manufacturing strategies incorporate many of the Lean Building Blocks as they are best practices for efficient manufacturing operations. A pull-manufacturing system is a system that synchronizes manufacturing quantity with customer demand. Customer demands “pull” manufacturing requirements. The traditional manufacturing execution strategy was to run one size at a time and to have very long process runs, as the dipline changeover was extremely long and laborious. A pattern-manufacturing system can also be called a rhythm wheel or production wheel; the principle of this manufacturing system is a fixed sequence or pattern of production that is continually repeated.
