KANBAN SYSTtrM

ADAPTABLE KAb]BAi.T S./STEM

KAII'{I'ATb]S .]UST-TN-T IME PRODIJCf,' TON
The Kanbarn system is an information systern that
harmoniously controls the product,ion of the necessa4y''
products in the necessary quantities at the necessaly time
in evely process of a factory and also amorg conpanies. Thi-s
is known as just-in-time production. At Toyatar the Kanban
system is rega.rded as a subsystem of the whole Toyata production
sys'tem. In oti-rer wo:ds, the Kanban system is nct equivalerE
to the Toyata procuct,iclr sytemr although many people erroneously
caII ttre latter the Kanbarr systemp In this chapter, the varlous
types Of Kanbans, their usiagesr a1^rd rules are clescribed. How
Kanbans are connected with many supporting routines jn
product,ion lines is also cliscussed. :

Whet +s_a Leth*ell3

A Kanban is a tool to achieve Just-in-time procluction.
A Ka.nban is a cand. usually put in a rectsnQular vinyl' i
envelope. Twc kinds of Kanbans are mainly usedc b withrlrawal
Kanban ancf a prod,uct,ion-ordering Kanban, A viithdrawal Katrban '

specifies the ki:rd 6nd quantity of proJuct whrich the subsequertt

process should Withraw from the precd"ing process r whj.le a '

production-ondering Kgnban specifies the kind and quantity of

prcduct which the preceding process nrr:st produce" The
proCuction or.dering Ksnbar is often ca}lecl an in-process
Kanban or simply a prodtrction Kanban.

Store
Sh-etr gp. 5E2l-5 Itern Back Ngq_ 4?-15 Precedirrg Process
FORGING
Ilem No. S567p1-qJ__*_ B-2
I'E em Name
Car Type:SXSOBC Subsecrr:ent Process
MACHINING
lBox Canacitv I Box Trrne I Issue<l No. I M- 6
 a1rflaqit

-:

Stcre
Shelf ldc. F26 - 18 Item Back No /r5- 34

Item No
t"ItrrCLiIirIING
r SB.B

Car Type

Flg" PRODUCTTON ORDNRI }s3 KA,NBAN

Several otlrer kjncls of Kanbans exist. For makjrtg

withdrawals from a vendor (a parb or materials supplier.
also callecl a subcontractor) , a supplier Kanban (also
called subcontractor Kanban) is usecf. fhe supplier Kanban
contains instructions wihch reqr:est the subcontracted
supplie:: to celiver the parts. In the case of Toyota, in
principlel the company withdraws parts from the subcontrac- I

ted factories. However, since the shippjng costs are

included j-n the unit. price of the part based on the
contract, the supplier generally delivers the parts to
Toyota, If Toyota actually wlthdraws the parts, the
shippinE cost must be cleducted rom the part price' i
Therefore, the suir l ier Kanban is, is i-ts rea1 sose
another type of withdre.i.wal Kanban
Hoyr_ go sg--v-a:c!pru;*5 an}-q+ s-:

{ig. 3 shows the withdrawal Kanban and the

trow
proCuction-orclering Kanban are used. Starting froi'r the ,

subseqr:ent process, the varicus steps utilizing the

Kanban areS
I. The carrier of the subsequent process goes to the
s'bope of the prececlj:rg plocess with the neces.sary nun[celr
of withcirawal Kanbans and the empty pallets
(containers) on a forkl j-ft or jeW. l{e does t'}ris
vrhen a cefti:in predetermj-nd number of detached withd-
rawal Kanbans have accunn-rlated ln his withdrawal
Kanban nost (i.e. receivi-ng box or file) or at
 Prffi{rdiirgKslt

wrtuMl xarts
erdlarmlm

nnn Wiirdid Kra.[ pat I Caa.Cs{ erm (rErnbry rr

XrEi

Fb. 3 Stcp. tnyoh.d ln urt ,C th. tro Kmb.n&

 ffi
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2. When the subsequent prccess carrler withdraws the fF rts

at store l\, he detaches the procluction-orderS-ng Kanbans
which were attached to the physical units ln the
pallees (note tirat each patlet has one sheet of Kanban)
and places these Kanbans jn the Kanban receiving post.
I'le atso leaves the enpty pallets at t,lre place designated
by the preceding process peq)le.
3. For each prodr:cticn-ordering Kanban that he detached,
he attaches jn its place one of his withdrawal Kanbans.
' When exchanglng the two types of Kanbans. he carefully
con'pares the wj-thdrawal Kanban wlth the production-
or:lering Kanl,an for corrsi-stenCy.
4. When r"dod( begins in the subsequent process, the
withdrawal Kanban nnrst be put in the wlthdrawal Kanban
Post.
5. In the proceding process, the prrccluction-ordering
Kanban should be collected from the Kanban recei.vj-rg
post at a certain point in time or when a certain
number of units have been produced and n,ust be placed. I

jn the prodr-rcti-on-ordering Kanban post in the same

sequence in wiri:h lt had been d.etached at store A.
6-- Prioduce the part,s according to the ordinal sequence
of the production or:C,ering Kanbans in the posl.
7, Th,:;;hysical unlts grd the Kurtxrtr imrst move as a pair
when prrccessed,
B. Wien the pLryrsice* unlts are conpleted in this prpcessr
they and tire pt:oductj.on-ordering Kanban are placed
in store A, so that the carrier from the subsequent
process can wit,hdraw them at any time.
Such a chain of tvlo Kanbans rrrrrst exist continuously
in many of the preceding pncsssr As a result,, everar pf,oclss
wjl-t receive the necessary kjnds of units at a necessary
time in the necessary quant.itiesr so that the Just-in-tj-me
a
NAIIUNAL I'TTUIJUCTIVIIY COUNCIL.
wlLl help realize llne bal-ancing for MADRAS;
each pr)cess to produce
 -; !o

ito out4;ut jrj accondance with the cycle time.

Kanban Ri:lesr
rn order to realize the Just-in-t.ime purpose of kanban,
the following n:Ies nmst be fo1lcwec1:
Rule 1. The subsequent prJcess should withdravr the necessar1,
products from the precerfing process jn the necessar1, qlantitj.es
at the necessary point irr l"imr:.
rf the prrcducti-cn manager alone vrished to intncduce
the Kanban sys'bern into the factory, his position would be
so weak that he courd not inprement this first Kanban rule.
To irylement this ru1e, the top managernent of the corrpany
must win over all workers ancl shculcl also make a cri.tical
decision to upset the previous flow of product,i-on, transpo.rt,
and delivery. This decisron wirl probabry be met with nn:cb
resistarrcebecauseRu1e1requiresacojp1et'echgrgeofthe
existing prrcduct,ion system.
The follovring suJrrules wi.ll arso acconpany this nrle: I

* any withclrawal without a Kanban should be prohibi-tecl.

* ;-i.ty withdrar,.;;:;l which is greate.r than the nunber
of
Kanbans should ir* p.nrhibit,ed.
* A Kanban ehourd always be attacrrql to the physicar t,

p rcducts.
I

rt should be notecr that as prerequlsites of the Kanban

systern, the following conclitions shourd be incorporated into
the pncductlon syst,em; snoothing of production, layout of
prbcesses, and s-tandardization of jobs.
The sm:othlng of producticnr of leveLed Caily prcdct_iorrr
is a necessarl. conditioh for a small_lot withclrar^ral and a
small-lot procluction of subsequ.ent processes, and is rnost
inportant for implemerrtingi Rule L. For example, if only
t'he Kanban system is appried to withcrawing the parts
frorn
outsicr,e subcontracted conpenies without any snr:ot.hed prcituc*
11naq1pf66$arer, t,hen the
Kanban will be a verV dangerious weapon and its orlgj.nal
 F)u.rposerri-rr l:e -iosts. ur;"r*lrJ;,r.rs necc a large
amounr
of inventory, equlpmtrrt, a,rrc'r, rnenpower to
respond to
fluctuating <lemands from the manufacturer.
To us an ear]ler exanple in the
Corona assenbly line,
setJans are assembled and conveyed.
ever]r one unit inte::raI2
while hard'tcps ancr rdaqons are assembled.
and convslzsfl in three
unit intervals. The flnat outpuL is
thenc sedan, harCtop,
sedanr w.gonr sed611 , hardtop,
etc.
Hcweverr Vfl j-f Rule l- was
appliecl, _lust_in
production coulc not easily be
attained. because Kanban
itself is merely a clispatching means
for actual prcduction
actions duri-ng each c,dy dt each procssso
Before entering
the phase of dispatchl_ng the jobs by
Kanbane oVexall
planning throughout the plant nru.st
be mad.e j.ts advance. For
this purpose, Toyota w'll rnform each
process ancl each
supplier each month of a predetermined
monthly production
qrrantity fo:: the nerb rncnthrs p:rcduction
so each process arc
each supplier in turn can prq)are
ln actv6plss its cycle time,
necessar]/ workforce, necess ary
nunber o f materi.a.l s, and
required i'nprrcvement point, etc- Based !
on such overall plans,
al-l- processes in the plant can
start tc appply the RuLe 1
sinmltanecuely frcm the first dav
of each nicnth,
Concerning wlthclrawaL methocls
by Kanbanr two adclLtional
features should be mentioned, At Toy616,
kind's of withdrawal sy*.emss the there are two
constant guantiqlr, but
inconstant cycl_e wj-thdrarval- system,
but inconstant quantity witfrdraral an the constant cycle,
system.
 -! 3-
Wttirllgigt A whlri-iqig beetle ie an jnsect that
whirls on the surface of water veqr swi.ftry. The carrier in
the Toyota factory is also called ttre whirligig
(rtMizusuma.shitr), because he travels between prglceding processes
and subseguent ptDcesses aglain and again. For exanpler when
the parts necessalr/ for assen'bling a small lot of accelerators
(five uniLs is a Lot size) need. to be wlthdravon, the carrier
will- go arcund various stores at the various rnachirring
processes and witdravr the part,s necessary to make a set of
five accelerators. The whirligig conveyance is a representa-
tive exanple of withcrawing the parEs jrr constant quant.ities
as a set.
cslsrsng-gygleilr4--4es- .g:skm: rhe
round-tour mixed-loading syste,n i.s used hy the subcontractor. :

As far as withdrawals" from subcont,ractecl con4ranles are concrne<l,

itisthesubcontractorwhousua1lyd'e1iversitsproductto
the conpany' consequentlyr the carrylng hours become
inporuant because of the frequent <lelieverles due to small-
lot pncductlon.
,

For exanple, four subcontracted. companies, /nrB. C arrcl D

on Ars truck. The f;{-?cond <ielievegg at 11 p.m. could be mad"e
l:y conmany B similarly 1:i"cking up the prod.ucts of tr\rc, and '

D on the way. fhe thirc cleliver-y at 2.F.rTl. woulcl be made by

c con'pany. This is caLled the constant cycrer riound.-tour
mixed loading system.
Rure 2. The pr*ce.ling plocess should prrod.rce its product,s
i-n the ciuantities withclrawn by the subsequent process.
Whar Kanban Rules 1 and 2 are obserlred, all production
procebses are conbined so they become a kind of conveyor
1ine. The barancin g of the prcd.uction timirE among all
processes w111 be maj-r:tainecl by st.rictly obsenzj-ng these
tvc rules- r'f p:rcblems occur in any of the p!)csss1 the
whole process might stop, brtthe balance among processes is
stj-ll rnai-ntajned" Therefore, the Toyota procluct,iqn system
. l,tATtoNALPRODUCTIV|TY -
COqNCil-, UAOnnS.
system. and Kanban is a means of corindctf.iid'arr the
 -: t-
prccesses' ;is a result, the inventory kept by each precedi_::g
process wiII be minlmized.

The subnrles for the seconci nrle fo11ow:

* Production greater than the nurnber of sheets of
Kanbans rcn:st be prohjbited.o
* various kinds of parb,s are b bepo,lucecl in the
'v{hen
prececing pxocess, thej.r p:rocluction shouLd .foLl_ow the
oriqlnal sequence in ntrich each l<1nC of Kanban has beer-r
de1 ivered.

since the subsequent process uri]r req:ire in singre uni-t

or in a sma]-l lot slze to attaln snoothecl prrrd'ctionl the
prececing prccess rnust make frequer:t, setups accorclJrrg to the
freq:ent recJ.lsltions by the subseguent pro cess. Tfre::efor.e,
the preceding prpces:s"shourd. malce each setup verlr quick,
surs-? Defective products should never be conveyed to the
:

subseqr.ient
..Drccess j
.

The Kanban system i-tself wi-ll be destrcyed. unless this ' :

thit:cl rule j-s fo1lowed" If some defecti,,re items were cliscovered

bythesubgggugnt1l]l]CeSS,thenthesubsequentprocessitseif
makes its line stop bec,::use it d.oes not have any
e:<tra
unitsofinventoryranr1itsendsthosedefecLi-veiternsback
to the precedi:rg process. such line stoppage of the
sul:sequent prDcess i-s very obvious and visible to r

e.veryone. Its purpose ls sinply to prevent recurrence

of
such defects.
rhe meanj-ng of defective is e>q,:anc).ec1 to incrude d.efect,j.ve
operations- ' A defective operation is a job fo,r which
standardization is not fulry attained. and inefflcie'cies
then exist in manual operatioris, rrcuti,,nesr dnd rabor hours.
Such jneffici_encj.es woulcl likely cause the prrcductj-on
of
defective items as we11. Therefore. these defeetive operatj.ons,
must be eliminatecl to Jssure rhythnric withdrawars
frrcm t,he
precedinE pnocess. The stand.ardiaation o.f jobs is, th
* {", on e oEAt-[9&l g reBsQSgEyEUs c8Hr',r gr kal{b&sASy sr em.
 b3
Rul e 4'
The nuryl?-er oa"r-mb-e.ne-Mi:![i-?s9.
since the number of Kanbans expresses the maximum
inventory of a part, it shoulcl be kept a.s small as possilcle
Toyota recognizes the inventorl' rever increase as the origin
of all kinds of wastes.
The fina-l autl'iority to change the nunii:er of Kanbans is
delegated to the supervisor of each process. rf he i-nproves
his process b1'decreasing the l.ot, size crnd short,eni-ng lfe lead
time. then his necessary number of Kanbans can be decreasccl.
such impncvements in hi-s pr'cess wiil contribute tc the
obse:rrance of Rrrle 4. rf it is clesirecl to inspire inri:ncved
rnanageri3l abiliwr authority to cretermine t, e nunber of Kg1-
ban nmst flrst be delegatecl..
The total numbet' of each Kanban is kept constant. There_
fore, when the daily average demand has lncreased, the lead.
time should be reduceqr. This requires the reducti-on of the
lC\rcle timerr of a standard
operatrlons routine by
changing the allocation os urorkers in the lil.,e. However,
because the number of Ksnfo6ns 1s fj-xed, a workshop incapabJ-e
of sucir in"prcvements will suffer line-stops or force the use
of overtime. At Toypfs, it is vi-rtually inrpossible fcr
workers to hide procluction nrrcbrems in their workshop, for
the Kanban system actually vj-sualizes troub.Ie ln the fcrm of
ljne-stops cr overt,ime, and will swiftly generate j.nprovement
activities to sorve the p:obrem. sirops might increase.
/r$ a resultr the size of safety inventory can be an inclicator
o f the shop's abi] ity.,

In case of a. clene.rd decrease, the cycle time of the stan_

darcl operations routine will be increased. However, the
pncbable idle time of workers nrlst be avoiclecl by
reduclng the number of ranrkers from the line.
ful-Q-j" Kanban shoulcl be used to aclapt to sma]r fluctuations
iri <-iemanc] (f,ine-.Uuning of producti-on by Kanban)
Fjne-tunlng of 1:roducticn by Kanban refers to the
NATIONAL PRODUCTIVTT!'' COUF
sudden demanl changes or e:cigencies of production.
 "ffi'
-: :E

To illustrate what is meant by aclaptability, we will

first examjne the problems facecl by corry>anies usd.ng orc).inary
cont:rcl systemsi 1.., corrpanles not usj-ng Kanban. Ttiese
companies rack the means to ceal snoc'thry with eudclen,
une>pected demarid changes. The orclinary cont.rrcl system
centrally determlnes prrrlluction scheclures and j-ssues them
sinmltaneously to production processes; therefore, sudclen de-
mancl changes will rcqulre at leoSt 6 $eVFr*to ten-<1ay
inte::rar before schedules can be revised ancr reissuecl
to the factory-the tirne i.nterwal for the conFuter to
corrpile and calculate upclate<l d.ata. irs a result, the
various p:reduction processes wilr be faced frcm time to
time with atrrupt, jolting changes in prcduction reqr:irements;
these problems will be conrpounclecl by the processesr rack of
smoothed proCuction.
Conpanies using the Kanban system, on the other hand.
d.o not lssue detailed procuction schecules slnrultanecusly
;
to lhe preceding proeesses curing a monthi each process can ,.

onry know what to pnocuce when the p:rccluctj-cn-orclering

Kanban is det,ached from t,he container at i-ts store. onry
the finaL assembly ljne receives a sequei.)ce schedule for a
Cayts procluction, r:.:cl. this scherjule is d.isplayecl on a
computer which specj.fl es each ncxb unit to be assenblecJ.
.As a result, even though the precletermj-ned. rnontly plan
clemanilded manufacture of slx units of ii ancl four units of
B ln a Cay, this ploportion may be reversed at dayrs enc1,
No one has i"nstnrcteC the plan changes to all proces.sesi j:rsteacl
each change has arisen naturally fncrn market demand and
exigencies of produc'tion, according to the nunber of
Kanbans detached.
Here we see the meaning of flne-tuned prccuction.
Where Kanban is used, and prorfuction is Leveled, it
becomes easy to react to changes in the marJcet by procluclng
a few more units than the nureber predeterminec by schedule,
For exan$:le, 100 unlts a da)'rrrust be pnocluced as part of the
p reC et e rmiJd 6iil $$Adn EODUgAffhWqFpttDlStl, oill ADfrSr,$ary orh we f j:: cl
P
1

that 120 unlts per day r^rould be necessary for Febn.aty.

 -mi^! tR@asrtN

we will aclapt to the

Accorcling to Toyotars approach'
changebypnccucingl05orl0?Unitsclai}yfrcmJariuarY
.llthon,insteaclofs.eepingatthelOOurritrateforaweek
oSten-caylnterva}reg:ireclfort,}reprccluctionscheduleto
jn orcinary procluction contrcl
1ro revised-as is the case
.vv

systems'Morovrrwewillnotfeelthechangeclplan'
sinceprod.ucticnateachnrccessisalwayssubject,to
instrr:ction bY Kanban'
such fine-t,_'nlng of production
by Kanban can onry'adapt
According to Toyotal
to small fluctuat'ions in demand'
L0% can be handleC by
changing
ciemand variations of arpunc
cn}ythefrequencyofKanbantransferswithoutrevisingthe
total nu',rber of Kanban.
changes in Cemandr
In the cas of fairly large sea'sona}
irr actual mcnthly
or the case of an jrr"t"u'u ') or clecrease
over the precletermined, road or the preceding monthrs
demanc
mus: '* '::':]'.;.]-^"'-,.',*
loacfr all of, t'he productrrn ljrtes rnust' be reconputed
That isr tlre cycle tlme of each workshop
and.corresponcingtythenumberofworkersj].teachppcess
rrnrst59g6anged.otherwise.thetota.InunrberofeachKanbart
nmst ]re increasecl or clecreased'
the peak in
In order to cope with the bottom ancl
of demand <lr'rring the year' toP management has t-a
variation
makeaclecisioneithertoleve}thesalesvolumeforthe
wholeyeafrorconstructaflexibleplanforrearranging
alltheprocluctlon}jnescorresponcingtoseasonalchanges
durjng the Year'
LastlyeocflCerningtheaclaptabil.ityofl(anban.itshculd
also for r:arts in
be notecl that the Kanban can be usecl
unstableuse,altharughthesafetystockwl}lbesomewhatqreater
lnti.riscase.Fo'exanqrle.sma}Iironpiecescalled
balanceweightsmustbeattacheclt,otrpclriveshaftofa
carbyaworkertopreventanyirregnrl.arityinitsgyrati.on.
Therearefivekincsofbalancewelf,htsrancltheynrr;stbe
trffir'e-ffi**"**;ffiY
 "ffi
F! 11" 3-

n:tat'ion of a shaft. rf the rot,atior i-s evenr f,ro barance

weight is necessary. If the rotation is irregiular, one or
nrlre r,veights rmrst be attache<l. Thereforer tlre demancl for
these five kincls of barance weighi,s is entirely unstable
and cennot be leveled at aII.

In Toyota, howeverr a Kanban is attached t.o these

balance weights is entirely uns-cable and cannot be l. veled.
at all-
In Toyotar hcwever, a Kanban i.s attached to these balance
weights, too. since the invcntory levcls of the flve kincs
of bal-ance wei$hts wi]I not increase rrpre than the total nunber
of each Kanban, the inventory levers and the o:rrer quantities
become measure):le, and the safety i-nventory arso can be
reasonably controll ed.

rilthcugh the Kanban transfer is made at a regn:rar point

in time, the number of Kanban for each kincr of barance
weights will somewhat fl-urctuate clqrencling on the cr.emand.
change. However, if we wish to mi-nilnize such fluctuations
of Kanbanr w have to inptove the manufacturing process
itself in sonle wdy.