At our November 2011 meeting, the “beer game” painted a picture of what happens when production without balanced flow is the manufacturing situation – poor customer service and excess inventory. At our February meeting, Gerry Najarian, one of our own members, will present the lean manufacturing solution to unsynchronized production: a “pull system.” No matter how it is explained, it seems like a mystery. This presentation will demystify the subject and familiarize you with the principles, methodologies, algorithms and, implementation issues involved in setting up your pull system.

Going forward by moving backward is how one author described a pull system. Others use images of drums, buffers and rope to explain how to “pull” production through a manufacturing shop. Pull systems are the heart of a flow oriented factory and permit synchronization of operations and material flow by working backward through signals that cause production events to happen. Backward motion starts at the finished goods warehouse and signals the previous operation which, in turn, signals the previous operation and so on back to the supply (or supplier) of raw materials. Some of the areas to be covered include: kanban concepts, how to use cycle times to set lot sizes and buffer stock, the role of forecasts in a pull system, the key disciplines and, replication of the manual approach with a computer system.

About the Presenter:

Gerald Najarian is a principal of The Remington Group, LLC. He directs the firm’s practices in Lean Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Mr. Najarian is a business executive and management consultant with more than forty-five years experience in manufacturing operations and finance. Prior to his association with The Remington Group, he was a management consulting partner in a “big four” accounting firm and was the chief financial officer of a publicly held manufacturing and distribution company.

Mr. Najarian is a specialist in the economics of manufacturing operations. Much of his work as a consultant and executive pertains to the financial implications inherent in the organization of manufacturing and supply operations. He is active in APICS, which he is a past chapter president. A frequent author and speaker on topics of importance to the manufacturing industry, Mr. Najarian holds a BBA degree from Iona College and an MBA from the City University of New York’s Baruch School of Business.

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