A comparative study and a proposal of a decision support system for the pull systems

Abstract

Pull system is a production approach that material movement is triggered by a signal. Although the pull system is usually used as a synonym of kanban system, it has been seen that kanban does not work well in some production environments, and some pull system alternatives to kanban such as CONWIP and POLCA are developed. Due to different pull systems in the literature, selection of a pull system that is suited to the production environment and market conditions plays an important role in the development of effective production systems. In this study, CONWIP and POLCA pull systems that are proposed as an alternative to kanban have been analysed and a comparative study has been presented. As a result of the work, a decision support system has been proposed to assist in selecting the most appropriate pull system. The decision support system is based on fuzzy logic theory. The experimental results have shown that the decision support system based on the fuzzy logic can produce good results for different inputs and can be a guide for decision makers in production environment who are not expert.

Keywords

• Pull systems
• Kanban
• Conwip
• Polca