Token-based pull production control systems: an introductory overview

Since the advent of Kanban, pull systems have been widely used in practice and have been widely studied by researchers. During the last decades, several types of pull systems have emerged. Numerous articles have been published to introduce new paradigms or new principles for just-in-time systems as well as new approaches to evaluate them or to optimize their performance. An important feature of these systems, which is common to many other production control systems, is the use of tokens, which usually consist of cards that authorize certain production tasks to be performed. Tokens can be used in various manners to control production and can be combined with several other mechanisms with the objective of reducing the work in progress and the lead times, while meeting customers' demand. This article proposes an introductory overview of existing research works in this area. In this respect, we suggest a classification of pull-inspired production control systems, which allows us to distinguish up to 18 different systems. For each type of system, we study its basic principles, the flow control strategy, and the parameters affecting its performance. This survey aims at facilitating the understanding of the different proposals made by researchers and highlighting their common points and differences.