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Why and How Seru Production Systems Are Responsive and Efficient in Volatile Markets

  • Dongni Li*
  • , Kathryn E. Stecke
  • , Yong Yin*
  • , Kan Fang
  • , Hongbo Jin
  • , Ikou Kaku
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Beijing Institute of Technology
  • University of Texas at Dallas
  • Doshisha University
  • Tianjin University
  • Tokyo City University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Seru production systems have demonstrated excellent rapid response capabilities in both stable and uncertain environments. This study reveals that when compared to the Toyota Production System, the seru production method improves rapid response capabilities by 20% and 50% in stable and uncertain environments, respectively. The underlying reasons for this improvement were unclear, so this became a focus of this paper. Static and dynamic Just-In-Time Organization Systems are used to investigate both the flexibility and efficiency of seru production systems under stable and uncertain conditions. Findings show that the rapid response capability of a seru system is driven by the substitution effect of parallel serus. Efficiency is relatively easy to achieve in stable environments but is more challenging in unstable conditions. Therefore, this study explored methods to achieve high efficiency in seru systems under uncertain environments. A stochastic gradient algorithm and a dynamic allocation algorithm are proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform traditional newsvendor models and can achieve near-optimal performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)685-703
Number of pages19
JournalProduction and Operations Management
Volume35
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2026
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Assembly
  • Flexibility
  • Just-in-time
  • Lean
  • Toyota Production System

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