Design of pull production control systems using axiomatic design principles

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the lean manufacturing literature by providing a roadmap for pull production control system (PCS) implementation. Design/methodology/approach Axiomatic Design (AD) methodology is used to develop the proposed pull PCS transformation roadmap. Findings The proposed design methodology is validated in a real-life manufacturing system. The results show that the proposed methodology significantly reduces the design efforts. The methodology effectively helps to choose the most appropriate pull PCS and determine its operational settings with respect to the manufacturing system characteristics. Research limitations/implications This study presents only one case study to test the proposed methodology. In future studies, the validity of the proposed method can be further generalized in different manufacturing sectors by real-life implementations. Practical implications In many real-life lean production projects, companies do not know where to start or how to proceed, which leads to repetitive design efforts and inefficient designs. The developed roadmap of this study minimizes incorrect or imperfect design trials and increases the success of pull production transformation projects. Originality/value The implementation of pull PCS requires extensive design knowledge and expertise. Therefore, many real-life applications fail due to costly and time-consuming trial-and-error-based design efforts. In the literature, there is no comprehensive guideline or roadmap for pull PCS implementation. To address this issue, this study provides a novel holistic roadmap to transform an existing push PCS to pull. The proposed methodology uses AD principles and combines fragmentary studies of the pull production literature.