Although only one type of operation is called continuous flow, in practice most types, even those employing several discrete stages, aspire to continuous flow.
1. Just-in-time (JIT)
1.1 Introduction: Moving materials swiftly through processing reduces cost – fewer handing and storage charges, lower inventory, lower work-in-progress levels (reducing control problems), and shorter lead times.
1.2 Background: The JIT approach was pioneered in the 1970s at the Toyota motor company. In Japan, JIT is often called “TPS,” for Toyota production system.
1.3 Principle: Elimination of waste and responsiveness are pillars of JIT. The satisfying of demand as it arises, so there is neither the waste of having finished goods waiting in store for an order that may never come, nor the unresponsiveness of making a customer wait.
2. “Pull” systems
2.1 Introduction: Materials are pulled through the supply chain ultimately by customer request. The idea is not to hold more than the minimum inventory and to make just what is needed when it is asked for and not before.
2.2 Principle: Synchronized manufacturing, highly responsive and low-stock system. It is to eliminate buffers and solve the problems being buffered against – unreliable suppliers, machine breakdowns, labor inefficiencies, defective material, and so on.
3. Lean production
3.1 Introduction: By using the “pull’ system, the result is a dramatic fall in costs, since the removal of such problems and