This research compares Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Kanban, and Period Batch Control (PBC) as alternative approaches to the planning and control of multi‐cell manufacturing involving flow cells and assembly. Since previous research on performance of these systems in cellular manufacturing has been primarily conceptual, the experiments reported here provide new insights into their comparative performance.The results show that the production environment is a major factor in system choice. Three operating factors—Master Production Schedule (MPS) volume variation, MPS mix variation, and setup time/lot size—clearly affect system choice. All systems performed well under Justin‐Time (JIT) conditions; there was no advantage to Kanban. Under the mixed conditions of high MPS variation, but small setup time/lot sizes, PBC produced superior performance compared to Kanban and MRP. Under non‐JIT conditions, MRP was seen as clearly more effective. Finally, the results indicate that when conditions permit very small lot sizes relative to requirements, Kanban may perform best, even when MPS variatio