From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

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Reducing lead time using a pull approach to reduce buffers

Reducing lead time using a pull approach to reduce buffers

From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

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Reducing lead time using a pull approach to reduce buffers

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- What is a pull system and how can you use one? Well the basic idea is that you don't produce any work that the next person in the chain can't cope with. Buying food from a supermarket, or ordering books from the internet are both pull systems, because you buy more at the rate that suits you. Imagine if the supermarket automatically delivered food at a fixed rate, regardless of whether you wanted more, but this is exactly what happens with your e-mail inbox, and with the post, and with most factories, where the job is done and passed to the next department, regardless of whether they're going slowly, or are ill, or are on holiday. So the idea of a pull system is that you stop the upstream person from making the work, unless the downstream person can cope with it. Two easy ways to do this are as follows. The first is to have an ordering system, like we do with the supermarket. The second person sends a message to the first…

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