Customer Service in Pull Production Systems

In this paper, we consider the issue of customer service in pull production systems. We first discuss the meaning of customer service in a pull system and contrast it to push systems. We also discuss both pure and hybrid pull systems that are found in the literature. We then investigate the effects of changing inventory levels and processing time characteristics on customer service in a pure kanban system. Finally, we show that a hybrid system known as CONWIP not only has better service than a pure kanban system, but also solves certain implementation problems.