what is kanban 
kanban is an inventory control system used in just in time jit manufacturing it was developed by taiichi ohno an industrial engineer at toyota and takes its name from the colored cards that track production and order new shipments of parts or materials as they run out kanban is a japanese word that directly translates to visual card so the kanban system simply means to use visual cues to prompt the action needed to keep a process flowing understanding the kanban systemthe kanban system can be thought of as a signal and response system when an item is running low at an operational station there will be a visual cue specifying how much to order from the supply the person using the parts makes the order for the quantity indicated by the kanban and the supplier provides the exact amount requested for example if a worker is bagging product on a conveyor belt a kanban may be placed in the stack above the last 10 bags when the worker gets to the card he gives the floor runner the card to bring more bags a station further from the supply room might have the kanban placed at 15 bags and a closer one at five the flow of bags and the placement of cards are adjusted to make sure no station is left bag less while the belt is running the kanban system can be used easily within a factory but it can also be applied to purchasing inventory from external suppliers the kanban system creates extraordinary visibility to both suppliers and buyers one of its main goals is to limit the buildup of excess inventory at any point on the production line limits on the number of items waiting at supply points are established and then reduced as inefficiencies are identified and removed whenever a limit of inventory is exceeded it points to an inefficiency that needs to be addressed as containers of parts or materials are emptied cards appear color coded in order of priority allowing the production and delivery of more before a hold up or shortage develops a two card system is often used transportation cards also referred to as t kanban authorize the movement of containers to the next workstation on the production line while production cards also referred to as p kanban authorize the workstation to produce a fixed amount of products and order parts or materials once they have been sold or used kanban often requires company wide buy in to be effective each department must be relied upon to perform their necessary tasks at a specific time in order to transition the process to future departments without such buy in kanban methodologies are futile kanban core practicesthe kanban method has several core principles that define how processes occur and how team members should be involved in the process at the heart of kanban the process must be visually depicted whether by physical tangible cards or leveraging technology and software the process must be shown step by step using visual cues that make each task clearly identifiable the idea is to clearly show what each step is what expectations are and who will take what tasks old fashioned but still used today methods included drafting kanban tasks on sticky notes each sticky note could be colored differently to signify different types of work items these tasks would then be placed into swim lanes defined sections that group related tasks to create a more organized project today inventory management software typically drives kanban process as kanban is rooted in efficiency the goal of kanban is to minimize the amount of work in progress teams are encouraged to complete prior tasks before moving on to a new one this ensures that future dependencies can be started earlier and that resources such as staff are not inefficiently waiting to start their task while relying on others a company must internally assess the appropriate amount of wip to be carrying as it works through the kanban process this is often tied to the number of people along the process as the number of workers tied to a project decreases so does the allowed quantity of items being worked on this limitation also communicates to other teams or departments that they must be considerate of their ask of other teams as each group of individuals may be imposed a working limitation as a process is undertaken a company will be able to identify strengths and weaknesses along the workflow sometimes limitations are not met or goals not achieved in this case it is up to the team to manage the workflow and better understand the deficiencies that must be overcome a critical part of kanban is to observe and eliminate bottlenecks prior to them occurring this includes forecasting production and resource utilization as a process becomes more predictable a company will find it is easier to make commitments to customers or make processes even more efficient by fully scaling back additional unused resources as part of visually depicting workflows processes are often clearly defined departments can often easily understand the expectations placed on their teams and kanban cards assigned to specific individuals clearly identify responsibilities for each task by very clearly defining policies each worker will understand what is expected of them what checklist criteria must be met before completion and what occurs during the transition between steps 