Virtual Pull Systems

In their quest to implement pull systems, most companies struggle to complete the job. Many questions may remain  unanswered:

1)    What lean improvements have to be in place before we implement kanban?

2)    How do we right-size and adjust supermarkets for the best flow?

3)    Are potentially cumbersome manual techniques such as kanban cards the only effective visual system?

The first phase of this workshop will show you how to avoid over-simplified kanban formulas to size and resize your kanbans – no matter where you are on your lean journey. In the second phase, you will explore how to select the best visual pull techniques for you, while minimizing the waste associated with maintaining manual pull systems.

Upon completion of this interactive simulation, participants will be able to:

• Calculate supermarkets to match your suppliers’ capabilities with your customers’ desires – before you implement.
• Harvest data which resides in every automated Resource Planning system to size and resize your supermarkets with ease.
• Evaluate the effects of management policies on your ability to implement and maintain an effective pull system.
• Choose from either manual or automated pull techniques – and understand under which conditions each is most effective

Don has over twenty years of experience in materials management line operations, and another twenty years in lean manufacturing consulting. He formed Synchronous Management in 1986, after two years with Dr. Eli Goldratt, originator of the theory of constraints. Don’s clients have successfully implemented hundreds of pull systems, ranging from engineering prototype shops to high-volume repetitive operations

Don’s pioneering work includes capacity-based lot-sizing techniques for changeover-intensive resources, make-to-order kanban for the non-repetitive job shop, and automated pull systems for complex repetitive environments.

He is a frequent speaker for AME, and is certified on the Fellow Level by the American Production and Inventory Control Society. Don is the author of the Pull/Kanban training program for the NIST-Manufacturing Extension Partnerships and of Pull/Kanban Systems training for the Lean Enterprise Institute, where he is a faculty member.