Motivational Lean Game to Support Decision between Push and Pull Production Strategy

Abstract

In this paper, we present and propose the interactive push-pull lean game with a specific approach for training/testing of production processes. With our approach of combining the psychologically effective physical lean game and the simulation lean game for deeper analyses of the production process, we can successfully overcome the communication and motivation problems of production and management workers when new production strategies are being introduced into the company to raise the competitiveness. The game only takes two hours and it has been proven to be effective with leadership teams and shop floor workers alike in more than 50 real-case production environments. The game is played in two parts where each part is in sharp contrast to the other with respect to results. Once the participants of the game see the effects of both production strategies, they become extremely engaged and motivated, and it becomes much easier to manage organizational improvements. In the third chapter of the paper, we present the Virtual factory computer models of the game dynamic, showing the same results as obtained with groups. The two simulation models serve to test and verify the interactive game. The paper ends with the discussion and conclusions.

Production line balancing with discrete event simulation: A case study

“…The output from the final workstation is pulled by customer demand or the master production schedule. Because the understanding of the problem is not adequate and decision about both strategies is not easy, considerable attention has been directed toward developing a more complete understanding of Pull-Push systems by proposing a specialpurpose developed motivational interactive Lean game (Herakovic et al, 2014). It is particularly suitable for the use in the educational programs at universities or in trainee programs at the workshops for the industry.…”

The application of simulation in lean production research: a critical review and future directions

“…Simulation based education and training at the phase of before lean should centre on the teaching and learning of lean concepts by selecting the appropriate simulation techniques for the specific training topics (such as Choomlucksana and Doolen, 2017;Hamzeh et al, 2017). This branch is also one of the focus at the phase of after lean of stakeholder education to buyin the changes and benefits by applying lean principles (such as Slomp et al, 2009;Herakovic et al, 2014). Two dimensions should be considered of the analysis of facilitation: visualisation and stakeholders' engagement.…”

“…Simulation is considered as one useful strategy for demonstrating lean concepts for training purpose (Da Silva et al, 2013;Herakovic et al, 2014), and understanding benefits of lean implementation by exploring the impact of lean initiatives on the hypothetical production system (Shannon et al, 2010).…”

A hybrid metaheuristics for layout optimization in production cell

“…The Lean system has become even a reference model for optimizing production and general performance of larger companies as well as SMEs [8], [9], [10]. Therefore some research works focus in simulation of production processes as well as in material flow and batch quantity optimization [11], [12], [13]. For this reason, the traditional layout of workshop machinery is transformed into more production cells, which is also one of the goals of lean production [14].…”