Kanbans Link the Supply Chain Together

Larry Rubrich wrote in Reliable Plant magazine that single-piece continuous flow is the most effective and cost-efficient way to produce or process anything. It is what lean is all about. However, we also realize this is not always possible. There are steps within the process that run at dissimilar speeds. If the process steps or equipment speeds cannot be synchronized or changed, we need to inject a buffer inventory into the systems so as to simulate single piece continuous flow. 

Kanbans are signals which automate the replenishment of repetitively used materials and supplies from internal or external suppliers to the buffer inventories. Kanbans reduce outages and shortages of materials and supplies, which improves customer service levels. Kanbans support "pull production" and continuous flow, since material is not produced at the supplier until a signal to replenish material is received from the customer. Using this approach, kanbans will reduce overall inventory levels (30 percent reduction on average). 

Kanbans can be used anywhere in the organization where there is repetitive usage including: maintenance supplies, janitorial supplies, raw materials, and office supplies. The type of signal used in a kanban is only limited by your imagination, but there must be agreement on the type of signal and the information it contains between the supplier and the customer. (In general, all kanban development is accomplished by negotiation, at least for the first few kanbans, between the supplier and customer.) 

Note that kanbans are the most efficient at eliminating waste when the signals are returned from the point of use (customer) to the supplier. Sending the signal back through purchasing so they can cut another purchase order to the suppler is not a kanban system. All signals must contain the information that the supplier needs to replenish the material. Learn more.

Georgia Tech Helping Georgia Become a National Supply Chain & Logistics Leader

Randy Southerland's article "Moving the World" in GeorgiaTrend noted that the truth is logistics in all its forms is big business in Georgia. The state is the fifth largest overall logistics employer in the nation and rising fast. The Georgia Centers of Innovation has identified more than 12,300 logistics providers that employ more than 140,000 people. In addition, there are more than 33,000 logistics-consuming companies that critically rely on the efficient flow of freight to operate their business, according to the Center of Innovation for Logistics.

Going online to order a hammer that shows up at your door a short time later is a technological feat that few consumers are able to appreciate. Technology must be able to find the right item in the warehouse, pull and package for shipping and then be able to confirm shipment for the customer. It has to be done not just once, but hundreds and perhaps thousands of times a day. The explosive growth of online orders has forced a total redesign of warehouses and their operations.

"It becomes a challenge for warehouse and distribution centers, in that warehouses traditionally were designed to be pallet operations or case operations or detailed pick operations," explains Tim Brown, academic program director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech. These days, warehouses have to be able to serve the "onesie and twosie" orders that serve consumers rather than the large cases that were typically ordered by stores. These problems have been good news for Georgia and its flagship engineering university, Georgia Tech.