From my experience, there are a handful of pull-system design steps. This column seeks to “simply” outline those steps and some of the math that should be considered. However, don’t let the brevity mislead you. It isn’t necessarily simple.

1. Understand and segment customer (internal or external) demand. The lean practitioner may find the following lean-related math useful: average period demand, coefficient of variation, demand segmentation, ABC inventory analysis, and days inventory on hand.

2. Understand supplier (internal or external) reliability, quality, and availability. Relevant math includes: operation ratio, on-time delivery, scrap factor, etc.

3. Select best pull-system type—supermarket pull, sequential pull, or a hybrid. Not a lot of explicit math here, often this is driven by lean principles and value-stream characteristics, and value stream and organizational maturity.

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