A comparison of Kanban-Like control strategies in a multi-product manufacturing system under erratic demand

Managing demand variability is a challenging task in manufacturing environments. Organizations that implemented Kanban-Like Production Control Strategies (PCS) especially in a multi-product manufacturing environment (MPME) plan a large volume of production authorization cards (PAC) to respond to demand variability. The issue associated with high PAC for each part-type in a MPME is proliferation of Work-In-Process (WIP). Shared Kanban Allocation Policy (S-KAP) was recently proposed in the literature to allow various part-types to share PAC. An advantages of this, is that when there is a corresponding shift in demand within part-types in a MPME, the system quickly responds by allocating PAC accordingly to part-types without recourse to re-planning/re-scheduling of PAC. This paper investigates the performance of a newly developed Basestock-Kanban-CONWIP (BK-CONWIP) Control Strategy in a four-product-five-stage manufacturing system with erratic demand. Simulation based optimization was used and it is shown that BK-CONWIP operating S-KAP will outperform other Kanban-Like PCS.