I submit for your consideration the idea of creating a generic Kanban module in FlexSim. With the advent of things like Lists, SQL "query()", and Process Flow, a true Kanban module seems like a natural next step to taking further advantage of these new, more flexible data and logic structures. Implementation would be similar to the excellent additions of the Conveyor, AStar, and AGV modules in recent years.
Such a Kanban module would be designed to work in both Process Flow and traditional 3D "mode", or, a hybrid of both - depending on the scenario at hand. At first blush, PF tokens might seem to fit the "Kanban card" idea, although various hand-sewn Kanban models have used flowitems as "cards", and/or their labels, or signaling via OnMessage between downstream-upstream objects, and using port I/O control to throttle replenishment.
There's some pretty good examples of Kanban models in the FlexSim forum ("demo_kanban.fsm" and "Sample_MilkrunKanbanSystem_TD.fsm" come to mind), but I was thinking more along the lines of a plug-and-play Kanban integration that would already have the framework there. I.e., the various required tables/lists (the "Heijunka board"), triggers, "cards", picklists, etc. that you'd configure and fill-in for your particular scenario. Maybe such new functionality could be centered around a new "Kanban" list type, in addition to the five Global List types already there (FR, Item, TS, TE, and General). Or, perhaps it's an enhancement to the existing Flow tab's Pull Strategy/Pull Requirement picklists (which as of recently, now have a "Use Lists" feature, which is pretty slick).
Thank you.
