I Can, You Can, We All Can Kanban

Abstract

This brief note describes the kanban system of inventory control. It discusses the rules for its use, techniques for calculating the number of cards, and the difference between push and pull systems.

Excerpt

UVA-OM-1257

Rev. Nov. 1, 2019

I Can, You Can, We All Can Kanban

In 2005, a major diversified manufacturing corporation decided to implement kanban throughout its many businesses. This organization was a US-based manufacturer with a worldwide work force of approximately 37,000, revenues of $ 6.8 billion in fiscal-year 2004, almost half of which was generated outside the United States, with leading businesses in professional instrumentation, industrial technologies, and tools and components.

The question facing the operations teams was how to introduce kanban into a plant with 10,000 purchased parts and 20,000 manufactured parts. The goal was to create a standard system that could be rolled out to all the manufacturing and assembly facilities. The majority of these facilities were using software systems to track their inventory and manage their processes. Impressed with the success of the Toyota Production System, the corporation had been implementing lean conversion in its facilities for more than 15 years. It had yet to introduce kanban into all its businesses, but decided in 2005 that kanban would become a groupwide business tool. Kanban's simple card-signaling system would replace the frequently incorrect software systems that the materials teams were currently using.

MRP: Material Requirements Planning

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Keywords: operations management, Lean manufacturing, inventory management, just-in-time, inventory control, manufacturing operations