Do I need the earlier Lean Tool Kit workbooks first?

The foreword says each workbook describes a harder step than the last, and level pull is usually attempted last. You need not own the others, but you need a value stream map and some flow work, or the design questions have no anchor.

How long is it and what is the format?

It is a 114-page spiral-bound workbook from 2004. It uses a question-and-answer layout with diagrams, value stream maps, formulas and one case-study plant.

Is it still worth reading after 20 years?

The twelve questions about stocking, leveling and pull concern how a plant controls production, not software, so they still apply. Treat the case-study numbers as an example and replace them with your own demand and changeover data.

Book summary · Flow and value stream mapping · Advanced

Creating Level Pull: summary and review

Name: Creating Level Pull
ISBN: 9780974322506

A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals

By Art Smalley. First published 2004.

The short answer

Art Smalley, a Toyota veteran, wrote a workbook for the step most plants attempt last: replacing push scheduling with a production-control system that levels customer demand at one pacemaker process and pulls everything upstream from it. He frames the job as twelve questions answered through one case-study plant. It suits the planners and engineers who must design the system. It is not a first lean book, and it assumes stable processes and a value stream map.

Read it if

You schedule or plan a plant and want to replace weekly push schedules and expediting with leveled pull.
You have mapped a value stream and the future-state map calls for a pacemaker or heijunka box, but nobody knows how to size them.
You lead the plant and want to see how big the commitment is before you start.

Skip it if

You want pull explained in a few pages. A workbook of twelve design questions is more than that.
Your processes are still unstable, with frequent breakdowns and unreliable changeovers. The foreword calls this step harder than the earlier ones in the series.

When it pays off: After you have mapped your value streams and begun flow work, and before you buy scheduling software or order kanban cards. The foreword says veterans sometimes start here instead, if the plant is stable enough.

The core ideas, in plain language

1
System kaizen comes after point and flow kaizen
Smalley says he mostly sees 5S, setup reduction and better process capability at single processes, not a plantwide control system. Tying all product families together through one production-control system is what he calls system kaizen.
2
Twelve questions in three groups
According to the publisher, six questions guard against demand surges and shortfalls, three control production upstream, and three cover expanding and sustaining the system. Smalley says not every question applies everywhere and you may deviate.
3
Decide what to stock and what to build to order
The first design choice is which items you hold in finished goods and which you make only against a confirmed order. Everything else in the system is sized from that decision.
4
Level demand at one pacemaker
Customer demand is leveled in mix and volume at a single process near the customer end of the value stream. Upstream steps pull from it instead of following their own schedules. The lexicon pages tie this to the heijunka box and a fixed time interval called pitch.
5
Pull replaces MRP-style push scheduling
The foreword says many plants must move away from systems that schedule every activity and push work forward. Each step then requests only what it needs from the previous step.

How to use it on Monday morning

1
Pull one product family's real shipments
Take the last 8 to 12 weeks of shipments for one family, by item and by day. Work out average daily demand and how much it swings, with the planner in the room.
2
Split items into stock and build-to-order
Rank items by volume (a simple Pareto) and draw a line. High-volume, steady items are candidates for finished-goods stock. Low-volume, erratic items are candidates for build-to-order with a stated lead time. Write the rule you used.
3
Mock up the leveling on a wall
Use the heijunka box planner to turn weekly demand into containers per day, takt, pitch and a leveled sequence. Make a paper box with columns for time slots and rows for products. Run it for one shift by hand with a runner.
4
Check the changeovers before trusting the sequence
List the changeovers the leveled sequence needs and the minutes each takes. If they do not fit the slots, you have found your setup-reduction target. Record it.

What to be careful about

Heavy commitment, by the author's own account
Smalley notes that Toyota itself needed about 20 years to establish the system companywide, and that it takes the coordinated work of everyone in a facility. The foreword calls it the hardest step in the workbook series.
A 2004 workbook, with one case plant
It is a 114-page workbook built around one case-study facility, written before most of today's scheduling software. Your mix, changeover times and demand pattern will differ, so your answers to the twelve questions will too.
It assumes the earlier groundwork
The series earlier covered mapping, continuous flow and materials handling. Without a map and some flow, the pacemaker questions have nothing to attach to.
Pull is not a settled science
Wallace Hopp and Mark Spearman argue in a 2004 paper that lean circles use push and pull loosely. Read Factory Physics next if you must defend a design with queueing arguments.

Creating Level Pull compared with Making Materials Flow

Both are LEI workbooks in the same series. Choose Making Materials Flow when the problem is moving parts to the line on a rhythm. Choose Creating Level Pull when the problem is deciding what gets scheduled, stocked and released, and when.

Read the summary of Making Materials Flow.

What to read next

Same topic (flow and value stream mapping): Learning to See, Making Materials Flow, Value Stream Mapping.

Tools and templates on LeanSuite that go with it

Book details

Bibliographic details of Creating Level Pull
Title	Creating Level Pull: A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals
Author	Art Smalley
First published	2004. Lean Enterprise Institute, April 2004, as part of its Lean Tool Kit workbook series. Only the 2004 printing turned up in the catalogues I checked.
Edition shown	Spiral-bound workbook, first printing, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2004
ISBN-13	978-0974322506
Pages	114

Details checked against public records on 7 October 2026. Other editions have other ISBNs. We carry no affiliate links.

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Creating Level Pull: summary and review

Read it if

Skip it if

The core ideas, in plain language

System kaizen comes after point and flow kaizen

Twelve questions in three groups

Decide what to stock and what to build to order

Level demand at one pacemaker

Pull replaces MRP-style push scheduling

How to use it on Monday morning

Pull one product family's real shipments

Split items into stock and build-to-order

Mock up the leveling on a wall

Check the changeovers before trusting the sequence

What to be careful about

Heavy commitment, by the author's own account

A 2004 workbook, with one case plant

It assumes the earlier groundwork

Pull is not a settled science