Abstract
There exists controversy on the superiority of pull control systems. Kanban and Base stock systems are focused on and analyzed in this paper. Using simulation experiments, I compare the performance of Kanban and Base stock for a multi-stage, multi-product manufacturing system. In this system the customer demand, holding cost rate and setup number have an exponential distribution between: 160 - 360 products/day, 12.5 - 35% and 2 - 8 setup numbers. The entire manufacturing line was simulated for 825 hours, which include 75 hours warm – up period. I show that the optimal control system is of Base stock type with respect to the reference total cost.
Keywords: Base Stock, Kanban, Performance, Production System, Total Cost