The Hybrid manufacturing system is a combination of the
Push- and Pull-type modes. For the one studied in this paper, the raw materials are pushed from
station 1 to station k, until the last production station. This type of manufacturing system differs from Pull-type manufacturing in the flow of
the message. The kanban signal, instead of flowing back- wards from station k to station k - 1,
flows from the last station directly back to the first station to actuate the produc- tion
activities in station 1. Sometimes this mode of operations is defined by other researchers as a
long-Pull manufacturing system. Fig. 2 shows the mechanism of material and message
flow in the Hybrid-type manufacturing system.