A Finch–Foster Duality between ‘Pull’ and ‘Push’ Production Systems

Abstract

This paper views ‘push’ and ‘pull’ production systems as mutually dual in a sense originally proposed by Finch and Foster. Four measures of production effectiveness are analysed for both systems in the light of this duality, using continuous-time Markov process modelling. Two of the four measures are found to be identical for the two systems, while the other two are found to be complementary in a sense explained in the body of the paper.

Keywords:

• Production Systems
• Markov Processes Modelling
• Duality