The impact of restricting the flow of inventory in serial production systems

Abstract

This research uses simulation technique to compare the output performance of pull production systems with different inter-station storage capacities (ISSC) under various levels of total inventory (INV) in the system, station coefficient of variation (CV), and station down-time (DT). There are two primary findings from this study. First, it shows pull systems with larger ISSC yield a significantly higher output at all levels of INV in the system, station CV, and station DT. Second, it shows that lines using a strict kanban-based pull system can increase output while decreasing WIP inventory simply by allowing the inventory to flow freely between stations. These are major findings considering that the modifications necessary in the system to achieve these results are fairly uncomplicated and should require minimal investment.