Centralised planned campaign production is the predominant production system in process industries. In this study, we investigate whether a decentralised Kanban control system, which has proven to offer advantages in other industries, can be successfully integrated in a campaign production environment. The used research methodology combines model-based and case-study-based elements. Using the example of a pharmaceutical internal five-stage supply chain, we conceive a Kanban concept that integrates campaign formation, develop a discrete-event simulation model and conduct a range of explorative simulation experiments. We find that a Kanban campaign production system is not merely feasible but would also be favourable: throughput times can be reduced without increasing customer lead times. Sensitivity analysis shows that the system's performance is relatively robust to changes in Kanban key configuration parameters such as number of Kanban cards or campaign size. We conclude by discussing our findings and formulating three propositions that might stimulate future research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.