Themes for facilitating material flow in manufacturing systems

Organizes the wide‐ranging literature on “new wave manufacturing” factors which impact on the flow of materials into six themes which are related to a conceptual model. The six themes are:the effects of under‐capacity loading; the role of pull scheduling; the reduction of variability; the reduction of throughput time; the effects of reduced throughput time and of schedule stability on outbound logistics; and the application of synchronous flow to inbound logistics. Concludes that case study methodology offers wider potential to research casual links in the potentially complex interactions involved.