Electronic KanBan

[IHaveNoSpaceBar]

I think the kanban system is great and all, I am trying to see if i can take such a great idea a step further.

I want to eliminate the process of having a cell team leader or charger take the kanban card and hand it over to materials purchasing. We currently have a lot of kanban cards, and have already lost a few in this process. Updating the cards is a painful. Also the charger picks up the cards and hands them to materials once a day, so for example we yank out the last box of product XYZ, pull the XYZ kanban card, place it in a box for the charger to pick up at the end of the shift and give to materials purchasing.


I googled the topic for a bit and found several entries for datacraft solutions. They set you up with your suppliers so that they can log on your account and see what needs replinishment. Only problem is, thier service is very expensive, and not really appropriate for a small sized company like us.

Any ideas? is this even worth messing with? I started to think about maybe building an access kanban database, where materials can see what needs to be purchased and what not. Which I think is a lot more organized than a regural kanban.

 

[BillPSU]

A kanban is a signal to produce a kanban quantity of parts. This signal can be a card, a container, a light, an electronic signal whatever you determine is an appropriate signal. The base idea is to signal. Losing the signal is a common problem but you can lose an electronic message as well as a card. A robust system is required and discipline on the part of the person/process signalling and the process of filling the kanban. Management of the process is required.

 

[Pressed]

I have seen kanban cards faxed directly from the shop floor to a vendor for an order to be filled.

==========================================
Business Card

http://mech.e.tripod.com

__________________________________________
Cycle Heaven.......

http://www.tailofthedragon.com