O'Callaghan, Ramon, "A System Dynamics Perspective on JIT-Kanban", 1986
Just-In-Time (JIT) production is the notion of producing the necessary products in the necessary quantities in the necessary time in every process of a factory and also among companies. It is not uncommon to find JIT used synonymously with "Kanban," which is the name for a specific inventory replenishment system developed by Toyota to accomplish JIT production. The Kanban system employs cards (kanbans) to signal both the need to deliver more parts and the need to produce more parts. A unique feature that distinguishes the kanban-based JIT system is its unique "pull" nature. The paper begins with a review of JIT production and the Kanban system. Then, using the structuring principles of System Dynamics, a simulation model of a kanban-based JIT production system is developed. The formulation effort begins with the "simple structure" of one production stage. By connecting a few of these "basic structures" and adding a market interface module, a complete multi-stage manufacturing system is developed later.To test the internal consistency of the model, several simulation experiments are conducted. The unifying theme in these experiments is the issue of flexibility: How well does the system adapt to changes. The simulations are thus designed to show, for different management policies, the behavior of the system in response to unexpected circumstances. The following cases are considered: normal response, changing the number of kanbans, a breakdown, small and large demand increases, bottlenecks, and capacity planning. Finally, the results of these simulations are used to point out some of the managerial trade-offs involved in JIT production.Although the major contribution is the conceptualization and formulation of the system dynamics model, the paper lays the groundwork for subsequent normative research in the field of operations management.
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