Integration of evolutionary programming and simulation to optimize a pull production system

This paper describes the use of evolutionary programming (EP) integrated with a simulation model of a manufacturing system to determine the minimum number of kanbans and corresponding production trigger values required to meet demand. For this problem, a new two step heuristic is developed based on EP and the classical kanban sizing equation used by Toyota. The procedure is illustrated with an applied problem and the results indicate that the new heuristic provides good solutions to the problem.