Kanban

This article is about the manufacturing process. For the method used in software development and process-management, see Kanban (development).

Kanban
Kanban maintains inventory levels; a signal is sent to produce and deliver a new shipment as material is consumed. These signals are tracked through the replenishment cycle and bring extraordinary visibility to suppliers and buyers.[1]
PurposeLogistic control system
DeveloperTaiichi Ohno
Implemented atToyota
Look up kamban (Japanese) in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up kanban (English) in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Kanban (Japanese: 看板 [kambaɴ] meaning signboard) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing (also called just-in-time manufacturing, abbreviated JIT).[2] Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency.[3] The system takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. Kanban is also known as the Toyota nameplate system in the automotive industry.

A goal of the kanban system is to limit the buildup of excess inventory at any point in production. Limits on the number of items waiting at supply points are established and then reduced as inefficiencies are identified and removed. Whenever a limit is exceeded, this points to an inefficiency that should be addressed.[4]

In kanban, problem areas are highlighted by measuring lead time and cycle time of the full process and process steps.[5] One of the main benefits of kanban is to establish an upper limit to work in process (commonly referred as "WIP") inventory to avoid overcapacity. Other systems with similar effect exist, for example CONWIP.[6] A systematic study of various configurations of kanban systems, such as generalized kanban[7] or production authorization card (PAC)[8] and extended kanban,[9] of which CONWIP is an important special case, can be found in Tayur (1993), and more recently Liberopoulos and Dallery (2000), among other papers.[10][11][12][13][14]

  1. ^ Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (September 1992). Principles of Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. London: John Wiley. pp. 128–132. ISBN 0-471-93450-X.
  2. ^ "Kanban". Random House Dictionary. Dictionary.com. 2011. Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  3. ^ Ohno, Taiichi (June 1988). Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press. p. 29. ISBN 0-915299-14-3.
  4. ^ Schonberger, R.J. (2001). Let's Fix It! Overcoming the Crisis in Manufacturing. New York: Free Press. pp. 70–71.
  5. ^ Shingō, Shigeo (1989). A Study of the Toyota Production System from an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint. Productivity Press. p. 228. ISBN 0-915299-17-8.
  6. ^ Hopp, Wallace J. (Spring 2004). "To Pull or Not to Pull: What Is the Question?". Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. 6 (2): 133–148. doi:10.1287/msom.1030.0028. S2CID 21534297.
  7. ^ Zipkin, Paul Herbert (2000). Foundations of inventory management. Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-256-11379-3. OCLC 41991365.
  8. ^ Buzacott, John A. (1993). Stochastic models of manufacturing systems. J. George Shanthikumar. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-847567-9. OCLC 25833885.
  9. ^ Dallery, Yves; Liberopoulos, George (1 April 2000). "Extended kanban control system: combining kanban and base stock". IIE Transactions. 32 (4): 369–386. doi:10.1023/A:1007651721842. ISSN 1573-9724. S2CID 55284286.
  10. ^ Tayur, Sridhar (1993). "Structural Properties and a Heuristic for Kanban-Controlled Serial Lines". Management Science. 39 (11): 1347–1368. doi:10.1287/mnsc.39.11.1347.
  11. ^ Muckstadt, John; Tayur, Sridhar (1995). "A comparison of alternative kanban control mechanisms. I. Background and structural results". IIE Transactions. 27 (2): 140–150. doi:10.1080/07408179508936726.
  12. ^ Muckstadt, John; Tayur, Sridhar (1995). "A comparison of alternative kanban control mechanisms. II. Experimental results". IIE Transactions. 27 (2): 151–161. doi:10.1080/07408179508936727.
  13. ^ Tayur, Sridhar (1992). "Properties of serial kanban systems". Queueing Systems. 12 (3–4): 297–318. doi:10.1007/BF01158805. S2CID 206789950.
  14. ^ Liberopoulos, George; Dallery, Yves (1 January 2000). "A unified framework for pull control mechanisms in multi-stage manufacturing systems". Annals of Operations Research. 93 (1): 325–355. doi:10.1023/A:1018980024795. ISSN 1572-9338. S2CID 5096477.