Wherever materials/items are stored & consumed, many times we either face stock out situation or excess inventory. Stock out situation can lead to huge production loss and excess inventory may leads to items becoming obsolete which leads to increase in cost. This situation may happen at house, factory, hospital, restaurant, automobile spare parts warehouse etc. To prevent stockout situation and maintain optimum inventory, “Kanban”, a powerful Lean tool is used. Stockout situation happens because we order the items late or order less quantity and excess inventory situation occurs many times due to excess ordering. Kanban is a Japanese word “signal for ordering”, where the system visually indicates when the item to be ordered and how much to be ordered.

Kanban tool is used in Manufacturing, Retailing, Warehouses, Restaurants, Construction and other areas where materials are stored and consumed. Kanban tool is also used in software industries and other office situations to optimise load and monitor different projects to complete as per schedule. Implemented effectively, Kanban will help in meeting “On Time Delivery” and “Improve Inventory Turns” which are two key Management Performance Indicators. For less number of items (less than 300nos) Visual system of triggering can be implemented with use of Kanban cards. When number of items are more than 300, ERP system can be used for implementing Kanban system with customized configuration.

ABC and Runner/Repeater/Stranger analysis for all the items is done to decide for which items Kanban to be implemented.

Seven Steps academy provides training in Lean manufacturing, lean services, Lean Hospitals where application of Kanban has yielded substantial improvement in productivity. For more information and for further training needs on 5S trainings, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Green Belt, Six Sigma Blackbelt, Kaizen, QCO, SMED, Heijunka trainings, visit www.7stepsacademy.com