Kanban examples of implementation in the enterprise. Kanban System: Smart Project Management

The KANBAN system was developed by a group of Japanese managers. This system is based on the system "Just in time" (Just in time) - the supply of the necessary products in the required quantity at the required time - serves for operational management of production and includes not only special cards, but also vehicles, production schedules, technological and operational maps. Losses in this method- excess production, early production, marriage, irrational transportation, storage of excess stocks.

The essence of the KANBAN system is that all production sites of the enterprise, including the final assembly lines, are supplied strictly according to the schedule exactly the amount of raw materials, components, components and assemblies that is really necessary for the rhythmic release of a precisely defined volume of products. A means for transmitting an order for the delivery of a certain quantity of specific products is a label signal in the form of a special card in a plastic envelope. It uses selection card and production order card. The pick card specifies the quantity of parts to be taken from the upstream process site, while the production order card specifies the number of parts to be produced from the upstream site. These cards circulate both within the plant and between numerous supplier firms. They contain information about the number of parts needed, thus ensuring that the production system runs just in time.

KANBAN is an information system that provides operational regulation of the quantity of products produced at each stage of production.

Selection card contains: the type and quantity of products that must come from the previous site.

Production order card contains: the type and quantity of products that must be manufactured at the previous technological stage.

Supplier card or the subcontractor card contains: instructions for the supply of components, the supplier card is a type of selection card.

signal card used to describe batches of a product. Such a card is attached to the container with a batch of products. If the parts from the container are taken to the level indicated by the attached card, then the order for their replenishment begins to operate. There are two types of signal cards: a material issue request card and a manufacturing order card (triangular shape). The classification of the main types of cards is shown in fig. 3.3.

The use of selection and order cards is shown in fig. 3.4.

Rice. 3.3.

1. The arrival of the forklift driver to the place of storage of parts in area A. Selection cards + empty containers. Only a set amount, at a set time of travel.
2. Site B driver picks up the parts at the storage location. Withdrawal order cards and sending them to the collection point for order cards + shipment of empty containers.
3. Attaching brought with you selection cards in place of each removed from the container order cards.
4. When processing of products begins, selection card from the released container it is delivered to the collection point of selection cards for this section.
5. At site A, cards are picked up from the collection point and left at the collection point for production order cards only in the order in which they were removed by the driver.
6. The production of parts is carried out clearly in the sequence in which these cards were accumulated.
7. Finished product together with order card placed in a warehouse.

Characteristics of the traditional (push) approach: production of parts in accordance with the schedule (details of the

Rice. 3.4

yut as they are ready from the previous operation to the next). The pull system is that the subsequent section orders and withdraws parts, Assembly units etc. from the previous section to the next.

KANBAN rules:

1. Subsequent technological stage must draw the necessary products from the previous one in the required quantity in right place at fixed times:
- ? any movement without cards is prohibited;
- ? any selection exceeding the number of cards is prohibited;
- ? the number of cards must match the number of products.
2. At the site, such an amount is produced that is “pulled out” by the next section:
- ? production in large quantities is prohibited;
- ? the manufacturing sequence corresponds to the sequence in which the cards arrived.
3. Defective products should not go to the next site.
4. The number of cards should be minimal, since their number reflects the maximum stock of parts and assemblies.
5. Cards should be used to adjust production to changes in demand (fine-tuning fluctuations up to 10%).

The KANBAN system also facilitates the implementation of improvements that lead to increased productivity.

A. Improvement of manual operations.

? Completely redundant(absolutely unnecessary) - downtime, double transport, storage of intermediate products. Such transactions are subject to liquidation.
? Operations that do not add value,- superfluous, but inevitable operations (traveling for parts, shifting tools, unpacking parts received from suppliers, etc.).
? Manufacturing operations that add value through the use of human labor(culling, intermediate assembly, repair work). These operations are a small part of the volume of manual operations that add to the cost.

Proceeding from this, the sequence of exclusion of manual labor is visible.

B. Equipment improvement.

Criterion "cost-effectiveness". The goal of any improvement is to reduce the number of employed workers.

While changes made to manual operations can be undone, this is not possible with a rearmament. Initially, the maximum improvement of manual operations is carried out.

B. Rationalization proposals.

The system of rational proposals operates at the level of workers and "quality circles" - this is a small group of workers who study various methods and quality control practices. Members of the circles are offered training. Topics are defined.

The Kanban system is a methodology for setting goals. It is used to manage projects using signals. If something is wrong, you can immediately notice the problem and fix it, because Kanban visualizes processes using multi-colored cards. Employees will not start a new task until the Kanban board gives the appropriate signal.

In this article you will learn:

I think many people are familiar with the situation: they held a meeting, talked a lot and with passion, discussed problems, found solutions, recorded tasks in the minutes. And then ... nothing. A month or two later, a new meeting was called, and the tasks are still on the waiting list.

Thoughtful Japanese back in the 60s of the twentieth century came up with and began to put into practice the Kanban system, which allows you to organize the process of completing tasks through visualization. Let's see how it works.

Kanban: what is it

In the middle of the twentieth century, a group of top managers from Japan, led by TOYOTA President Taichi Ohno, asked themselves the question: how to make production work with maximum speed while stocks were minimal. The Japanese took a closer look at the system of American supermarkets, in which the cards of all purchased goods were registered at the checkout - this is how supermarket owners managed stocks. Information about the sold products was sent to the purchasing department, where they formed an order to the supplier based on consumption - supermarket shelves were replenished with stocks without stocking. System "Lean" helps to get rid of losses and increase business efficiency.

Tahiti Ohno took a key principle from this practice and formed a rule: the supplier must produce as many goods as the buyer ordered. Moreover, the supplier can be either directly the counterparty - the supplier, or a division within the enterprise. By analogy, the customer can also be both external and internal.

At the TOYOTA plant, order cards were introduced (from the Japanese “kam” - signal, visible, “ban” - card), which were hung in a conspicuous place in each division - this was how the plan for the production of products for this division was assigned. Thus, they organized production in the manner of a conveyor. Each subsequent workshop along the car assembly chain assigned a plan for the production of parts and components for the previous workshop. With the help of this approach, we reduced the overall overproduction, stockpiling of warehouses, and saved on logistics. The cards took root and proved their effectiveness. In 1961, a new, breakthrough at that time, Kanban system was formulated.

Kanban is a production organization system built on the "pull" principle..

Initially, the system was used only in the classical interpretation, as a system of cards in production. But the methodology evolved and improved, and by 1983 it was being used as a project management method.

How to implement Kanban: the experience of a Russian company

Kanban is a management method used in a process lean manufacturing. Russian company managed to overcome the resistance of the staff and implement a system of lean manufacturing. Her unique experience can be useful to those enterprises that are also planning to switch to lean flights.

Kanban board

A Kanban board is really a board hung in a conspicuous place in an office, workshop, or workplace. Stickers with tasks are placed on it - Kanban cards. Traditionally, the board has three columns:

To Do - tasks to be completed.
Doing - tasks in progress.
Done - completed tasks.

All team members are responsible for maintaining the board, whether it be a department or an assembly line. Each employee involved in the execution of tasks, as they are completed, can move cards with tasks along the columns of the board.

Agree, it is convenient when all the tasks of the team are in sight and you can visually track the progress of their implementation. The places of "congestion" become obvious.

Over time, the board has evolved. Today, Kanban projects can be managed using software tools.

In 2005, Kanban entered the IT industry and became one of the software development methods. David Anderson presented the development process as a set of tasks, each of which he wrote down on a card and posted on the board. Thus, he received a simple and understandable tool for controlling the seemingly confusing development process.

The Kanban methodology is a handy tool that can be applied anywhere from production to financial close.

Principles of Kanban

The Kanban system belongs to the family, so there are no rigid guidelines, principles, or frameworks in it. Like the other members of this family, she is focused on the person and allows you to maximize the potential of the team. Of course, at the request of the team itself. Let's study the principles of Kanban using the example of closing the financial year.

Principle one. Visualization

Most people are naturally visual. Everything that is visual is better remembered and “catches” attention. Therefore, the genius of the method lies in the most visual project management.

Suppose you are faced with a big and difficult task - to organize the closing of the financial year. At first, it was not clear how to organize the work of departments so that no one waited for anyone and did not redo the work twice. Following the principle of visualization, you break common task"close period" into subtasks:

hold documents from suppliers,
fill out the spreadsheet
calculate reserves,
etc.

Write each task on a separate card. Recall that you can use both real cards - stickers, and special programs. Once you have a pool of tasks, it's time to post them on the Kanban board.

The second principle. Limiting the number of tasks

As numerous studies show, a team cannot perform too many tasks at the same time. A lot of time is spent switching between tasks, which leads to a blurring of the deadlines for each task and an overall decrease in efficiency. The method implies that the number of simultaneously executed tasks should be limited.

Discuss tasks with subordinate departments, determine the minimum number of them that the team can perform simultaneously. For example, while the personnel department “fills out the time sheet”, the accounting department “introduces documents from suppliers”. As a result, it turns out that your team can simultaneously do 3-5 tasks. Record this number in the "Doing" column of the Kanban - boards, do not post to work large quantity task. You will soon see the effect - the cards will go from "To Do" to "Done" faster.

The third principle. Priorities

As soon as you limit the number of tasks that can be performed at the same time, you will get a cluster of cards in the first column of the board - "To Do". The property of human nature is to perform easy and short tasks, and with complex ones, pull to the last.

You will need to prioritize, that is, determine which tasks to take on in the first place. Kanban suggests either placing the highest priority cards at the top of the table, or using different card colors. Decide what will be the next priority task for each department, highlight such tasks. Your employees will always be aware of what they are doing tomorrow, or at the beginning of next week. With the help of priorities on the Kanban board, you can convey the main vector of work to the team and get rid of the situation when everyone works, but there is no result.

Fourth principle. Task flow management

If a task takes a long time to complete, Kanban offers the “all for one” principle. That is, team members who are underloaded, or perform non-priority tasks, offer their help in a problem area. Of course, this is the highest degree of collective consciousness, which is more characteristic of the Japanese than the Russians. But you should always remember that participation in the work of related departments broadens the horizons of the employee and improves his qualifications.

Principle five. Continuous Improvement

There are no perfect projects. In theory, the implementation of the project is presented as a clock mechanism, where the gears measured seconds and minutes. In reality, overlaps happen. The Kanban philosophy suggests that a project can be improved through experience gained. According to the methodology, team members analyze the work being done and give suggestions for optimization. It is useful to hold post-project meetings to discuss bottlenecks and effective ways solutions. It’s not worth it to part with such meetings, once every 1-3 months is a quite reasonable schedule.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Kanban system

Method advantage:

visibility. You always see the tasks of the team, their movement on the board. The situation disappears when you suddenly remember one of the tasks after a couple of weeks, having fished it out of the mail archives.
Effective team work. Due to the fact that tasks are completed faster, the speed of project execution increases.
Strong communication between departments and within departments. When all the work is visible, the effect of "unloaded neighbors" disappears.
Stock reduction. In a classic, manufacturing application of Kanban, the pull system reduces inventory of raw materials and finished products. And this means savings on storage facilities, transportation, and an increase in free cash.
Establishing long-term partnerships with suppliers. Dealing with a limited number of suppliers who are willing to supply you with just-in-time products will reduce risk and possibly save on procurement costs.
Improving the quality of work. The smaller the flow of simultaneous work, whether it is the production of products or the calculation financial indicators, the greater the focus on the result.

Of course, the system has flaws. First, Kanban is focused on a team that wants to work and improve. If there is no team motivation, a more strict method of managing it suits you, otherwise you risk taking all the work on yourself.

The second drawback follows from the first - the lack of a time frame. In Kanban, there are no deadlines set for each task, and there are no late fees. Only motivated employees will be able to reduce the execution time of each task independently.

For a large team, using a Kanban board will be difficult. Too much various tasks, priorities, results completely level the visualization - the most valuable advantage of the method.

If an enterprise uses Kanban in production, then it runs the risk of delays, because if one of the links in the chain does not work correctly, the whole process will slow down. There are problems with the medium and long term planning, because the output is focused on the orders of "buyers".

Intermediate conclusion: Kanban can be used in those companies whose team is motivated to develop and achieve results. Kanban is suitable for small and medium-sized companies, departments and projects.

Analogues of the Kanban methodology

The method has analogues. Let's see what control methods can be used in different situations.

If you decide to arrange work time using Kanban, then consider, as an analogue, the Eisenhower matrix. It consists of four sectors: tasks important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and finally, not important and not urgent. Kanban has an advantage over the matrix - on the board you see the progress of each task. The result of work is obvious to you and it motivates you. See details,
For a small team driven by results suitable SCRUM method. This technique and Kanban are very similar, but SCRUM is more stressful.
For teams that are working to continually create new value, the critical path method is the way to go. It is based on planning with help. Deadlines for each task are important here. The critical path method is the opposite of Kanban - it drives the team into a tight time frame. AT different areas Both methods will work differently. For example, for construction, the critical path method is applicable, and for IT, Kanban.
Cascade planning method (WATERFALL). When using this strategy, before the start of the project, they plan in detail the entire scope of tasks with deadlines. Such an organization allows, on the one hand, to be sure of the final result, on the other hand, in case of a sudden change in the scenario, planning must be started from the beginning. WATERFALL is well suited for industries with established output volumes, for proven and time-tested projects. The same fiscal period-end closing can be done with both Kanban and WATERFALL.

When choosing a system that suits your particular case, rely on personal feelings. You can mix from several systems - perhaps you will invent new method project management.

(CANBAN, pull system, pull system) - the most common type of just-in-time system - a system that ensures the organization of a continuous material flow in the absence of stocks: production stocks are supplied in small batches directly to desired points production process, bypassing the warehouse, and finished products are immediately shipped to customers. The order of production management is the reverse: from the i-th stage to the (i - 1)-th.

brief information by term

At present, there is a clear upward trend in inventory storage costs, which was the reason for the development of "instant" inventory management systems, which include the CANBAN system in question, developed by Toyota Motors Corporation - one of the first attempts at practical implementation of the "just in time" system.

The essence of the CANBAN system is that all production units of the enterprise are supplied with material resources only in the quantity and by the time that are necessary to fulfill the order. The order for finished products is submitted to the last stage of the production process, where the required volume of work in progress is calculated, which must come from the penultimate stage. Similarly, from the penultimate stage there is a request to the previous stage of production for a certain number of semi-finished products. That is, the size of production at this site is determined by the needs of the next production site.

Thus, between each two adjacent stages of the production process there is a double relationship:

from the i-th stage to the (i - 1)-th stage, the required amount of work in progress is requested ("pulled");
from the (i - 1)-th stage to the i-th stage, material resources are sent in the required quantity.

The means of transmitting information in the CANBAN system are special cards ("canban", translated from Japanese, - a card). There are two types of cards:

production order cards, which indicate the number of parts to be produced in the previous stage of production. Production order cards are sent from the i-th stage of production to the (i - 1)-th stage and are the basis for the formation of the production program of the (i - 1)-th section;
selection cards, which indicate the number material resources(components, parts, semi-finished products), which must be taken at the previous processing (assembly) site. Selection cards show the amount of material resources actually received by the i-th production site from (i - 1)-th.

Thus, cards can circulate not only within an enterprise using the CANBAN system, but also between it and its branches, as well as between cooperating corporations.

Businesses using the CANBAN system receive production resources daily or even several times during the day, thus the stock of the enterprise can be completely updated 100-300 times a year or even more, while in the enterprise using the MRP or MAP systems - only 10-20 times a year. For example, at Toyota Motors Corporation, one of the production sites in 1976 was supplied with resources three times a day, and in 1983 - every few minutes.

The desire to reduce stocks becomes, in addition, a method of identifying and solving production problems. The accumulation of stocks and overestimated production volumes make it possible to hide frequent breakdowns and shutdowns of equipment, and manufacturing defects. Since in conditions of minimizing stocks, production can be stopped due to defects in the previous stage technological process, then the main requirement of the CANBAN system, in addition to the requirement "zero stocks", becomes the requirement "zero defects". The CANBAN system is almost impossible to implement without the simultaneous implementation of a comprehensive quality management system.

Important elements of the CANBAN system are:

Information system, which includes not only cards, but also production, transport and supply schedules, technological maps;
a system for regulating the needs and professional rotation of personnel;
a system of general (TQM) and selective ("Jidoka") quality control of products;
production leveling system.

The main advantages of the CANBAN system:

short production cycle, high turnover of assets, including stocks;
there are no or extremely low costs of storing production and commodity stocks;
high quality products at all stages of the production process.

An analysis of the world experience in using the CANBAN system showed that this system makes it possible to reduce inventories by 50%, inventory- by 8% with a significant acceleration of turnover working capital and improving the quality of finished products.

The main disadvantages of the just-in-time system are:

the difficulty of ensuring high consistency between the stages of production;
significant risk of disruption of production and sales of products.

Publications

Functional management. Fragment from the book "Theory of System Management"
The "just-in-time" production management system and its variation CANBAN are considered as the main directions of the efficiency of the enterprise's production activities in general and inventory management in particular. The concept and basic principles of inventory management, the structure and functions of the logistics service of an enterprise are also considered. Methods for calculating the need for material resources are given.

Yakubovskaya T. Inventory management and sales budgeting
The methodology for choosing an inventory management policy at the enterprise is presented.

Komaha A. Inventory management
The inventory management experience of Toyota and Kmart companies is considered: "just in time" system, statistical process control, general government quality, business process reengineering, total money management, optimal order size model, stock valuation and accounting.

Kanban is a system for operational planning of inventories and material flows between individual production operations. The idea of the kanban system is to produce and deliver products exactly when they should be delivered to the consumer, to manufacture parts not for future use, but directly for submission to the assembly, and to supply raw materials exactly at the moment when they are needed for manufacturing from them. details. The main rule of the kanban system is the interoperational supply of exclusively high-quality, defect-free parts and semi-finished products. With the kanban system, the plan for the production of a certain number of parts and semi-finished products at each previous technological stage is determined by the assignment of the production site that performs the next stage with a given production program of the enterprise. This system can be used effectively only if the adopted system is relatively stable. production program for the enterprise as a whole (in terms of the total amount of work performed) and with minor deviations in equipment load indicators from the established level. Therefore, the use of kanban requires the stabilization of production activities (which simultaneously implies a flexible change in the volume of output of individual products within the framework of the overall production program), as well as the rationalization of production conditions at each technological site.

The point of introducing kanban is to eliminate inventory and work in progress, firstly for financial reasons, but also, and most importantly, to provide greater flexibility in production, the ability to better adapt to changing market requirements.

Ensuring the flexibility of production is the most important requirement for industrial companies in modern conditions. In some dynamic industries, without flexible production, achieving product competitiveness is becoming less and less likely.

In flexible manufacturing, assembly lines are usually organized in such a way that many different product modifications can be simultaneously produced on them. However, such lines constantly need a wide variety of parts and components. But if there are a large number of copies of the same part in the warehouse, then the cost of inventory can increase enormously. Using the kanban system can significantly reduce inventory.

Kanban is a manual planning method that ensures that each production site releases exactly as many components as are needed for the next stage of production. The resumption of production occurs only when the available stock of parts and assemblies ends at subsequent technological operations. Kanban can be defined as a demand stimulator or as a pull planning system as opposed to a push planning system such as the MRP and MAP systems. With kanban, the main motivator is the one who uses the final product, and the beginning of everything determines the final output, to which all previous stages of production are adjusted. When using the MRP and MAP systems, this subject is Production Department, which, based on the projected demand for end products develops calendar plans for each production area. If with the MRP and MAP systems the planning of the requirements for materials at each stage of production is carried out from the first to the last stage, then with kanban the reverse order takes place. The information goes from the end point of the immediate production to the previous work site. Thus, each step of production is carefully coordinated and the delivery of materials, parts and assemblies from one contractor to another is carried out at the right time. The elimination of buffer warehouses and the strengthening of pairwise connections of successive performers increase the stability of the production process. Table 2 presents characteristic differences generally accepted systems operational planning production (MRP and MAP) from the kanban system.

With kanban, manufacturers often have to deliver their products to the next process step, either on an inconvenient schedule or in small quantities that are not cost-effective to produce. To compensate for the inconvenience of delivery schedules and small batch sizes that drive up costs, kanban OEMs use flexible production technology, introducing programmable, quick-change machines that can produce any of the many required parts. Product quality must be close to 100%, because a bad batch of components in the absence of stocks can lead to a stoppage of the entire production line.

Table 2. Production systems

The Kanban system (CANBAN) is a process organization technology that provides continuous material flow, which does not need "excess" stocks. The elements and materials involved in the process are delivered on time in small, calculated batches, bypassing the warehouse, directly to the corresponding stage of the production process. Finished products also, without accumulating in warehouses, it is immediately shipped to the end consumer (buyers).

To ensure the continuity of such a process, the reverse order of management is involved - from the needs of the end user to the initial stages. But it is possible to more fully define what Kanban is only in the paradigm of the Lean Production concept, the ideology of which the Kanban system reflects.

Basis of the system

With the help of CANBAN technology, there is a lean regulation of the amount of factory output or the volume of services provided (if the principle of the system is applied in the service sector, which is also possible).

For the fact that the CANBAN system, as a kind of brain, obeys production activity enterprises, this technology is sometimes called the "signaling system" of lean manufacturing (by analogy with the first human signaling system).

But the CANBAN methodology is almost impossible to implement without the simultaneous and parallel implementation of the integrated quality management technology, which was originally formulated as part of the concept of lean manufacturing in Japan at Toyota factories.

Kanban as an integral part of the Lean Manufacturing concept

The central idea of the CANBAN system was based on the inventory management method. The origin of this method falls on the years of the reign of Kiishiro Toyoda, the son of one of the founders of Toyota. Under him, one of the key concepts of the cycle arose - “just in time”. The essence of the concept in relation to the automotive industry was that any spare part of the car should be manufactured no earlier and no later than it becomes necessary. This meant, among other things, the elimination of large inventories, which reduced the ongoing costs of manufacturing spare parts and maintaining warehouses. Compared to the American auto industry, where warehouses with large stocks of parts were the norm, this approach was innovative.

The idea of "just in time" was developed by the heir to the dynasty, Eiji Toyoda, and a specialist invited by him - Taichi Ono (consultant). Taichi Ohno introduced cards - "kanban" - to control the movement of stocks so that there are no failures in the on-time delivery cycle.

He also set up the necessary alternation of operations for this. But in order for the whole mechanism of timely delivery of a part to the next stage of production to work, it was necessary to introduce a number of additional methods that lead to the elimination of losses in the chain of operations. These methods include:

mapping (production of graphic cards) of the product value stream for the consumer,
pull in-line production,
5s system and others.

The process of value creation at Toyota came from the demand and needs of consumers. Everything that had immediate value for the consumer and was in demand was included in the production cycle. And what, for example, provided “calmness” to the manufacturer (the availability of an assortment of parts), but did not relate to the values of the consumer, was excluded. The same principle was transferred to the entire production chain, only in the middle of the cycle the needs of the adjacent link were taken into account. Thus, a kind of pulling process was formed, in which the next stage of production took (“pulled”) from the previous one exactly as much as it needed.

This process became the basis of the pull manufacturing method and was similar to the method used in supermarkets, when goods are delivered to the shelves as they are sold. In contrast to the focus on predicted sales (the “push” method), in the CANBAN system, in the previous stage, exactly as many parts were produced as were withdrawn by the next, and at the time when it was needed.

However, in order for such a system to work without failures, it was necessary to achieve impeccable clarity of work, starting literally with the optimization of each workplace (method 5s), where even the mere absence of unnecessary things and cleanliness became mandatory factors for any employee of the company, including top management.

System Requirements

The difficulties associated with achieving absolute clarity and coherence of all structures are considered the main vulnerability of the CANBAN system. Not every production culture is able to provide high consistency between production stages. And this increases the risk of disruption in terms of delivery and sales of products. As an example of increased complexity, the following statistics can be cited: in 1976, Toyota Motors plants were replenished 3 times a day, and 7 years later, every few minutes.

On the other hand, if the CANBAN principle can be fully implemented, then the production stocks are reduced by 50%, and the inventory is reduced by 8%. In addition, the targeted reduction of stocks, at the same time, helps to identify and solve problems that exist in production, since the accumulation of stocks makes it possible to hide regular breakdowns and manufacturing defects.

Thus, the use of the Kanban system in production provides a number of advantages, among which the main one is the prevention of overproduction, which was not in previous systems and, as a result:

short production cycle,
low inventory holding costs,
high asset turnover,
high quality of work results at all stages.

But to see how the system works step by step, you need to start with the central element of the Kanban information system - cards (tags), which gave the name to the entire system.

How the information system works

The word "kanban" itself is translated from Japanese as "tag", "card", "sign". In the CANBAN system, this concept denotes a control card used in pull production - an order for a specific job. The map is assigned to each node and part, reporting where (from what stage) the part came from, and where it should move.

This is how a whole information system is formed, uniting the enterprise into a single whole, with certain connections between all, at first glance, disparate processes. This coordinates the value stream, which should start with customer demand. Moreover, the movement of kanbans can go beyond the boundaries of one plant - they can move between branches and interacting corporations.

In the information environment, 2 types of kanbans are used:

Production order cards. They include the number of details that define the task for the previous stage. Such cards are sent from the last stage (i) to the first and are considered the basis for the formation of the production program for the "i-1" site.
Selection cards. They include the amount of material resources (semi-finished products, components, elements) that must be taken at the previous assembly site. The specified quantity is information about the resources actually received by the last production site.

If we define all types of cards as “transfer kanbans” and “production kanbans”, then we can distinguish the following subspecies of cards.

The move kanban indicates where (for processing or for production line) and where the parts are moving from, is divided into:

Delivery cards.
Withdrawal cards.

Production kanbans (with instructions for performing specific operations on them) are divided into:

Order card.
Signal card.

In the CANBAN system, these cards bypass the planning department and must start moving from the sales department through the assembly line to the purchasing department. The order of the consumer becomes decisive and it also guarantees flexibility in responding to changes in demand.

Kanbans are attached to products and serve as a means of visual control and management. An excess of kanbans indicates a large amount of work in progress. Special software packages simplify both structure formation and data analysis. Statistical information is included in this case and the entire array of data associated with losses, which quickly allows you to identify the "bottlenecks" of the processes.

As an example practical application system, we can recall the specifics of the work of a Toyota employee, who is called a “water spider”. This nickname is given to a worker who moves parts to the place of work of other employees so that they do not leave their workplace and are not distracted from the production of the next batch.

Such movements occur constantly and not only on the scale of one workshop or plant. To optimize the movement, the most economical route is formed, the so-called "milk truck route", which is compiled so that on the way in both directions of the movement the peddler can serve as many working cells as possible without sacrificing efficiency.

The implementation strategy involves the implementation of 6 steps:

Providing the following processes from the supply of previous processes.
Manufacturing at the previous stages only what is withdrawn for the subsequent ones.
Ensuring the movement of only quality products without defects.
Creation of leveled production.
Assignment to every detail of a kanban.
Decrease in the number of kanbans over time.

All stages of implementation can be divided into 3 phases:

#1 Planning within the system

#2 Kanban circulation

When parts arrive at the assembly line, the cards are removed and moved to a rack to store “withdrawal cards”.
The employee retrieves the “withdrawal card” and, according to the information on it, replenishes the stock of parts for the assembly line.
The employee removes the "production card" from the cell and moves it to the rack to store the "production card" of the current process. And the “withdrawal card” is attached to the container with the parts that are needed for assembly. In this case, the container itself is again transported to the assembly line.
The “production card” is taken from the container and used as work instructions for the manufacture of products withdrawn for the subsequent process.
Empty containers are moved to the sump.
Processed parts are completed with "production cards" and taken to the storage area. From this zone, the worker from the next section should be able to take them at any time, so the zone is located close to the line.
"Withdrawal cards" are moved to the previous stage to replenish the number of required nodes.

No. 3. Improvement in production

The number of kanbans is reduced, allowing for fine-tuning as it exposes hidden problems.
Visual controls are used:
- marking of parts storage places between processes,
- installation of signal lamps for notification of processes on the conveyor (defects, problems on the line, shortage of stocks, etc.),
- placing kanbans above the line to track part status.
Convenient placement of cards so that you can immediately see the cycle time, inventory, processing order.

The ultimate goal of card reduction is to have zero work in progress in previous stages, and replenishment of withdrawn parts occurs immediately and without the use of kanbans. And although in practice this is almost impossible to achieve, this state should be strived for.