Vendor Kanban Simulation on 6" Pots

We are working on setting up a vendor kanban on 6" pots.

What is a kanban, you ask? "Kanban" is a Japanese word for "signal."

The traditional approach to ordering and managing production supplies promotes chaos, and is wasteful and costly.
Why?

• Inventory counts are expensive, inaccurate, time consuming, and are frustrating for your most skilled employees to manage.
• Inventory is compared to forecast, and orders are placed. The forecast is always wrong.
• We purchase to lower transportation cost, and price per unit. The result is a huge cash outlay with a huge batch of inventory that clogs the production floor.

Enter the kanban!

A kanban system uses visual controls to trigger reorders. It's usually a visual management system, where real consumption drives replenishment. Triggers and inventory levels are calculated based on a kanban formula.

So how does one effectively communicate the benefit and functionality of this new materials management system?

Legos!

John, our excellent Team Lead on this project, and I, were simulating the flow of material with Legos one day. It makes a great training tool. And As John says, "If you can't do it with Legos, you can't do it in real life."
As we worked through the simulation, we found that we would often forget some of the material flow. So I set up a grid on 11x17 paper to help us properly simulate our kanban material flow.

There are 5 row headers on the left side of the paper. The first is a date scale. The second is "Consumed Pallet", the third is "Kanban Card dropped?" the fourth is "Purhasing Orders" and the fifth is "Incoming Shipment." Using these row headers, we can simulate all the activity occurring in the kanban. The simulation tells us if our calculations are correct (do we run out of inventory, or does our inventory spiral up out of control?)

You can see our kanban footprint in the upper right of the picture. We actually have this pattern marked out on the potting shed floor now.

I've tinkered with simulation software (like Simul8) on this kind of thing, and it's good for running scenarios. But Legos win hand's down for teaching and getting everyone involved. It's a great learning tool.