A Performance Evaluation of KANBAN, CONWIP and Base-stock in Serial Production Lines

摘要

In managing a production process, choosing a proper card-based controlmechanism is an important task to achieve the best performance. We presentperformance evaluation of the three well-known card-based production controlmechanisms, KANBAN, CONWIP and Base-stock in serial production lines. Weemploy the theory of token transaction systems within a deterministicframework. The performance measures are system throughput and work-inprocess(WIP). We compare the minimum WIP, when the system attainsmaximum possible throughput. Our analytical results show that CONWIPoutperforms KANBAN, when the total number of cards in CONWIP is less thanthat in KANBAN. However, in performance evaluation of these two mechanismswith Base-stock, determining the superior system depends on a configuration ofsystem parameters, such as processing times and number of cards employed inthe system.