3.2. Kanban in the just-in-time manufacturing system
This paper modelled a single-card kanban manufacturing
system. Experiments are carried out by varying the kanban size from 5 units to 100 units, applied
to the following cases: (i) single product Pull-type manufacture; (ii) single product Hybrid-type
manufacture; and (iii) multi-products Hybrid- type manufacture.
It is commonly believed and has been proven that kanban
size is a critical factor in providing better customer service. The control of kanban is a kind of
inventory control strategy since kanban authorizes the production of any product at a suitable
time. Consequently, the number of kanbans and the size of kanbans should be determined prudently to
optimize the manufacturing conditions (e.g. less overtimes, higher machine utilization, fewer
rush orders), as well as to maximize economical benefits.