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Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Lean Manufacturing

Pull system

Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples

nounCommon term

In industrial engineering & manufacturing, pull system means: A way of controlling production in which a step makes or delivers parts only when the next step uses them up, instead of working to a forecast.

In Turkish: çekme sistemi, çekme sistemli üretim

How it is used

The opposite of a push system, where work is pushed through the plant according to a schedule. Pull is usually set up with kanban or supermarkets and keeps work in progress low. Lean teams talk about moving from push to pull.

Example sentences

  1. With the new pull system, the machining cell only starts a job when the assembly supermarket needs it.

  2. Moving to a pull system cut work in progress between the two buildings by 60%.

Common collocations

  • set up a pull system
  • push versus pull
  • move to a pull system
  • kanban pull
  • kanbanA signal, usually a card or an empty bin, that tells the previous step or the supplier to make or deliver more parts. The Japanese word means 'signboard'.
  • just-in-timeA production approach in which materials and parts arrive exactly when they are needed and in the quantity needed, so very little inventory is kept. Often shortened to JIT.
  • work in progressProducts that have been started but are not finished yet, such as parts waiting between machines. Often shortened to WIP.
  • lean manufacturingA way of running production that aims to deliver what the customer needs with the least waste of time, material and effort, based on the Toyota Production System.

More terms: Lean Manufacturing

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