Pull Strategies in the Flow Shop with a Bottleneck Resource

Abstract. This paper gives an attempt to build a decision support tool linked with a simulation software called ARENA for evaluating and comparing the performance of the push and pull material driven strategies operating in the flow shop environment with a bottleneck resource as the shop’s constraint. To be fair for such evaluation, the comparison must be made fairly under the optimal setting of both systems ’ operating parameters. In this study, an optimal-seeking heuristic algorithm, Genetic Algorithm (GA), is employed to suggest a systems ’ best design based on the economic consideration, which is the profit generated from the system. Results from the study have revealed interesting outcomes, letting us know the strength and weakness of the push and pull mechanisms as well as the effect of each operating parameter to the overall system’s financial performance