Pull systems establish an a priori limit on work in process, push systems do not. There is much confusion on this topic. The key distinguishing characteristic is WIP control. Any kind of production system, such as make-to-order, make-to-stock, engineer-to-order or configure-to-order can use push or pull control. Further, the fundamental objective of WIP control is maintain the optimal WIP in the system to achieve maximum throughput with minimum time and cost. This fundamental objective is a central design question for any Project Production Management system.