Drummers and Inventory Management Systems
Traditional and JIT inventory management systems also have drummers-fac- tors that determine the production rate of the plant. For a just-in-case system, the drummer is the excess capacity of the first operation. For JIT, the drummer is market demand.
Required
1. Explain why the drummer of a just-in-case system is identified as excess capacity of the first operation.
2. Explain how market demand drives the JIT production system.
3. Explain how a drummer constraint is used in the TOC approach to inventory management.
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the three types of drummers?