KANBAN
One of the issues we faced was that the Manufacturing Center did not have any resources planning software (ERP) and the software used was inefficient. So we had to find a solution to manage and control the stocks. The KANBAN system was the most appropriated for our needs.
Kanban literally means “visual card,” “signboard,” or “billboard.”This system was born by a Taiichi Ohno observation in a Japanese supermarket after World War 2.
He realized that in a supermarket customers get:
- What they want
- When they want it
- In the quantity they want
The Kanban system says that:
- Manufacturing in advance is as bad as manufacturing with delay
- Stocks are the enemies of demand adaptation and cost control
We should be aware that the Kanban system is based on company specifications and on customer demands. This system is always evolving with time. This system needs a constant monitoring.
In our facility we use the following card format with all the information we need:
- G-Stock Number: an identification number from our data base.
- Part description: to ease product identification.
- Quantity: the quantity in each container.
- Replenishment total time: information for the store keeper.
Goals
- To order and produce the right quantity.
- To improve the purchasing process.
- To reduce Stock.
- Improve demand adaptability.
- Improve purchasing efficiency.
- To have no more parts out of stock.
- To have no more obsolete parts in stock.
The first step for implementing such a system is again analyzing our needs and comparing them to our supplier's delivering capacity. In our case due to our low need for specific consumables we decided to use the container quantity equal to the minimum supplier delivery.
The two containers system also needs an analysis of the stock layout. We do not have to forget that the system is implemented to improve the efficiency.
First Results
Mechanical production stock: -USD5400 (inserts)
ISO 9001
