Systematic review and discussion of production control systems that emerged between 1999 and 2018

Abstract

There exists a large literature on well-known Production Control Systems (PCS) such as Kanban, Constant Work-In-Process (CONWIP), Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Paired Cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Authorisation (POLCA). However, there are also many new systems that have emerged in the last 20 years. These systems are less well known, and no systematic review exists. Through a systematic literature review, 13 PCS’s were identified, such as COBACABANA, REDUTEX, BK-CONWIP and B-CONWIP. For each system, we describe its characteristics, how they work and in what productive environments it proves useful. A cross-comparison of the 13 systems was then conducted using seven variables: primary control variable (WIP or throughput), degree of centralisation, material flow (productive environment), whether it was introduced as card-based, types of authorizations, number of articles published and type of articles published (theoretical or empirical). Most new PCS’s (7 out of 13) show characteristics that are similar to Kanban, CONWIP and POLCA: they are decentralised, card-based and use WIP as primary control variable. This may be a result of the strong influence of Lean Manufacturing paradigms Meanwhile, there is a general lack of empirical studies, being 11 PCS’s developed from mathematical simulations.