Setting bin quantities for 2-Bin Kanban systems (version 3)

John J. Kanet

doi:10.1016/j.omega.2018.08.010

2019-09-01

PRE

John J. Kanet *

Charles E. Wells

DOI：10.1016/j.omega.2018.08.010

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摘要

En 中文

The 2-bin inventory model has been well-known as a visual version of the basic (Q, r) model for inventory control. Visual control has been a hallmark of the JIT movement in industry toward simplification and transparency. The 2-bin idea is no longer limited to the industrial domain; there is growing empirical evidence that it is now well entrenched as a standard operating principle in hospitals for managing the inventory of medical supplies. However, it is of interest that hospitals, as well as their industrial counterparts, have developed a variation of the 2-bin idea, popularly known as 2-bin Kanban. Rather than maintaining two different sized bins as prescribed in the OR literature, users instead set the two bin quantities equal. This variation of the 2-bin idea, although prevalent in application, has not been thoroughly analyzed in the research literature. We provide a complete analysis of 2-bin Kanban and derive a simple closed form expression for the minimum total cost bin size subject to a specified customer service level, and extend it to the case of n-equal-bins, n> 2. Somewhat surprisingly, it is shown that in the general problem, the optimum bin size can occur at only two possible values, which may be easily computed based on problem parameters. We provide simple conditions that describe which of these two values is the optimum, thus completely solving the problem and providing the practice of inventory management a comprehensive approach of how to specify bin-based control systems. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keyword:

JUST-IN-TIME

MANAGEMENT