Kanban is a japanese word. "Kan" means "card" and "ban"
means "signal". Literally translated kanban means signal card. It is also sometimes referred to as a visible clue or sign.
The idea of a kanban was developed by Toyota as a part of The Toyota Production System.
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So how does the idea of kanban or signal card help us in an office environment?
Controlling the flow of work from one office function to the next can be very challenging.
Many offices have what I would call a "push" system.
One department pushes work onto the next department whether or not they are position to process that work.
In a "push" system there is an uncontrolled inventory of work between each process step. This in turn leads to longer turnaround times and inefficient use of resources.
A very effective way to work is by using a "pull" system.
In this system a department "pulls" work from the previous department but only when it's ready for it.
The ultimate in efficiency is to only "pull" one piece of work at a time.Often physical layout and the geography of our buildings prevent us from doing this.
The kanban system helps us to transmit information to the preceding process by indicating what the current process requires.
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Let's go through an example to show how this can work in reality.
Imagine a business that processes some sort of client application form.
Imagine we have 2 departments, some distance apart, who respectively process the first part, and then the second part of the application form.
E.g. department 1 processes a fee payment, and department
2 adds the applicants details onto the database.
We want to control both how the work flows and amount of work between the 2 departments. (two of the key ideas in "Lean thinking" are to create "flow" and create "pull")
We could create a "pull" system in this example as follows.
In department 2 we set up an area for our visible kanban.
Say we wanted to have a maximum of 50 applications in the area.
We may choose to have 5 plastic open boxes with 10 applications in each, as our total storage for work awaiting processing in Department 2.
We can also put in visual trigger points at say 20 and 40 applications. People in department 2 take cases from the kanban storage area and carry out the data entry (preferably one application at a time).
As the applications are taken, the amount in the storage area will reduce until there are only 20 left i.e. the trigger point.
When we hit this point our visual kanban storage is telling us that it is time to "pull" more work from Department 1.
(we request enough applications to fill the kanban storage up to the second trigger point to say 40 i.e. we request 20 more applications from Department 1)
By keeping this minimum amount of work between the 2 departments it is easy to see if work is flowing as it should .By just looking at the kanban storage area we know what action to take i.e. Pull work or not.
It also helps us reduce the turnaround time by eliminating large amounts of work in process between the 2 departments.
It's the office equivalent to a petrol gauge on a car.
You refill the tank as the indicator gets close the red.
You don't keep filling it up until petrol is spilling out of the tank onto the forecourt.
(like in a "push system")
