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Pull-System Design

Brief thoughts on sequence and math

Lean Math With Mark Hamel
Mon, 09/23/2013 - 16:42
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From my experience, there are a handful of pull-system design steps. This column seeks to “simply” outline those steps and some of the math that should be considered. However, don’t let the brevity mislead you. It isn’t necessarily simple.

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1. Understand and segment customer (internal or external) demand. The lean practitioner may find the following lean-related math useful: average period demand, coefficient of variation, demand segmentation, ABC inventory analysis, and days inventory on hand.

2. Understand supplier (internal or external) reliability, quality, and availability. Relevant math includes: operation ratio, on-time delivery, scrap factor, etc.

3. Select best pull-system type—supermarket pull, sequential pull, or a hybrid. Not a lot of explicit math here, often this is driven by lean principles and value-stream characteristics, and value stream and organizational maturity.

 …

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Comments

Submitted by Koulz on Tue, 10/08/2013 - 07:47

Sequential Pull System

Hi Mark,

Please give me more info on the math of sizing the pull system. 

We recently implemented a sequential pull system at one of the lines at work but were still struggling to stabalize the line.

I need to know how much buffer stock to keep for a 15minute pull interval.

regards,

Koulz

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Submitted by Mark R. Hamel on Wed, 10/09/2013 - 16:53

In reply to Sequential Pull System by Koulz

sequential pull system

Thanks for your comment/question Koulz. I while back on my Gemba Tales blog, I discussed FIFO lane sizing math. It's a bit more simplistic than what I'll be getting into in our forthcoming book, but it may be helpful. The link is right here - http://kaizenfieldbook.com/marksblog/archives/1021. If you have any further questions, just email me at mark@leanmath.com. Best regards, Mark
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