Abstract Production control in serial production lines such as CONWIP, base stock control and kanban control have been studied by many researchers. Production lines, however, usually have fork-type, join-type or network-type figures. Production control analysis in such lines has seldom been discussed. In addition, amounts of daily demand are usually informed to the line in advance before due date for demand. In this paper, a join-type production line with advance demand information is considered. The production line with advanced information on demands and various types of production control is formulated, and simple recursive equations on the ends of processes at all machines are derived. The line is simulated on computer by using the equations and the properties on production controls are discussed.