Design of pull production control systems using axiomatic design principles

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the lean manufacturing literature by providing a roadmap for pull production control system (PCS) implementation. Design/methodology/approach Axiomatic Design (AD) methodology is used to develop the proposed pull PCS transformation roadmap. Findings The proposed design methodology is validated in a real-life manufacturing system. The results show that the proposed methodology significantly reduces the design efforts. The methodology effectively helps to choose the most appropriate pull PCS and determine its operational settings with respect to the manufacturing system characteristics. Originality/value The implementation of pull PCS requires extensive design knowledge and expertise. Therefore many real-life applications fail due to costly and time-consuming trial-and-error-based design efforts. In the literature there is no comprehensive guideline or roadmap for pull PCS implementation. To address this issue this study provides a novel holistic roadmap to transform an existing push PCS to pull. The proposed methodology uses AD principles and combines fragmentary studies of the pull production literature.