Supermarkets vs. FIFO Lanes: A Comparison of Work-in-Process Inventories and Delivery Performance

Pull production is a key element for a lean manufacturing system. In pull production, buffer inventories between two processes can be implemented either through a FIFO lane as part of a kanban loop, or through a supermarket, in which case the value stream is split into two different kanban loops. This paper compares the usage of FIFO lanes and supermarkets with respect to the work-in-process inventory needed to achieve a similar delivery performance. The results clearly show that there is only a minor difference in inventory between the usage of FIFO lanes and supermarkets.