4.2. Simulation models
To test the effect of the kanban size on different types of
JIT manufacturing systems, two simulation models are developed using the SIMPROCESS simulation
package.
There are basically two simulation models; Figs. 4 and 5 show the systems built in the SIMPROCESS
environment. The figures show both the flow paths of materials and kanban cards. Six sequential
production stations are built in the simulation model, between each of which a WIP buffer is
allocated. Another type of buffer will be used to model the collection of kanban signals in the
Pull-type manufacturing system, i.e., the kanban signal buffers. It is worth stressing here that
these kanban signal buffers are not physical buffers, but are not modelled here only for the
simulation purposes. In each experiment, the kanban size can be varied by changing the capacity
of the WIP buffer. This buffer is of finite capacity so that the maximum level of the WIP is equal
to the kanban size.