thekanbansystem.docVIP

THE KANBAN SYSTEM Kanban was developed at the Toyota car plants in Japan as a program to smooth the flow of products throughout the production process. Its aim is to improve system productivity and to secure operator involvement and participation in achieving this high productivity by providing a highly visible means to observe the flow of products through the production system and the build-up of inventory levels within the system. Later it was further developed as a means of production activity control to achieve the goals of JIT and to manage the operation of just in time production. Kanban also serves as an information system to monitor and help control the production quantities at every stage of the manufacturing and assembly process. Kanban is seen as a pull system, as distinct from the production activity control systems in MRP, which are regarded as push systems. Both push and pull systems are driven by a master production schedule (“MPS”), which defines the requirement for individual products, i.e. top-level items in the bill of materials. This MPS, in turn, is broken down into a detailed plan for items to be manufactured, assembled, and purchased. A push system operates by attempting to determine when individual work centers must complete processing of work orders in order to meet the commitments of the MPS. MRP is considered to be the classical example of a push system. A pull system, on the other hand, looks at the manufacturing process from the other end, i.e. from the perspective of the finished item. The production controller works on the basis that his/her orders represent firm customer requirements. The time horizon is understandably short. The orders are broken down from the highest level and the controller checks whether sufficient component parts are available to produce the finished product. If the components are available, the product is produced. However, if they are not, components are pulled from the preceding work ce