Evaluation of multi-product lean manufacturing systems with setup and erratic demand

• Production authorisation cards and basestock levels are lower in shared policy.
• The shared policy responds to demand variations quicker than the dedicated policy.
• BK-CONWIP has a higher flexibility than the alternatives in terms of WIP control.
• BK-CONWIP is the best performer of the three pull control strategies examined.

The consideration of demand variability in Multi-Product Lean Manufacturing Environment (MPLME) is an innovation in production system engineering. Manufacturing systems that fail to recognise demand variability generate high Work-In-Process (WIP) and low throughput in MPLME. In response to demand variability, organisations allocate large quantities of Production Authorisation Cards (PAC). A large proportion of PAC results in a high WIP level. However, the Shared Kanban Allocation Policy (S-KAP) allows the distribution of PAC among part-types, which minimises WIP in MPLME. Nevertheless, some existing lean manufacturing control strategies referred as Pull Production Control Strategies (PPCS) that have shown improved performance in single-product systems failed to operate S-KAP. The recently developed Basestock–Kanban-CONWIP (BK-CONWIP) strategy has the capability of minimising WIP while maintaining low backlog and volume flexibility. This paper investigates the effects of erratic demand on the performance of PPCS in MPLME. It is shown that S-KAP BK-CONWIP outperforms other PPCS. Finally, it is feasible to design quick-response PPCS for MPLME under erratic demand.