Kanban Electronic Dashboard 1

[nelson97]

Can any one suggest or know a Kanban electronic board software available out there? I'm looking for something that provides real time display of the inventory in stock, in request, and in transit via a dashboard type form where the inventory is depicted in color coded blocks of some type. The 2 main factors are: real time and all data are in one viewing area.

I'd greatly appreciate suggestions on this.

Thanks

 

[GreenBelt]

Trying posting this question on

http://www.isixsigma.com.

Some of the lean or six sigma experts may help you.


Good Luck,

Mark

 

[DrSam]

You might want to check out

http://www.datacraftsolutions.com

. They (we) have a product called Signum that might be what you're looking for.

Sam

 

[BillPSU]

You are defeating the purpose of a kanban card and trying to do something which probably won't be acceptable to you. A kanban card is supposed to be the signal to manufacture or purchase material in a pull system. You are trying to use it to determine inventory. Do you want onhand inventory or non allocated or allocated or what type of inventory. How many kanban cards have already been put in the system? Where are they at in the purchasing or manufacturing process? Is material at the dock waiting for distribution?
The real question I want to know is why you need inventory levels? In a true pull system the quantity of kanban cards controls inventory levels and its only supposed to support production. Do you need the inventory for non production functions such as service parts or what. Normally the inventory levels attained by a kanban system will turn inventory at a minimum 12 times in a year and in some cases 52 or more times in a year. Or is the problem you don't trust the kanban system and its not in your comfort zone.

 

[DrSam]

The single biggest fear of those implementing kanban is the loss of a card, especially in a two bin system. Having visibility into where the "cards" (or their electronic equivalents) at all times, gives a little insurance against a misplaced card. I know of several factories that have integrated their electronic kanban system with their warehouse inventory system and are working on a perpetual inventory model. Combine this with visibility of the electronic signal across the entire supply chain and they have a "belt and suspenders" approach to mistake proofing the process.

I think Nelson's question has great merit. Especially in the high volume and high part number kanban system. It's just a matter of protecting against sleepless nights.

 

[BillPSU]

DrSam
Changing from a shop order, inventory control, MRP, ERP environment is extremely stressful and using your "insurance" policy may make the change more acceptable but this insurance is a waste in the long run. Mistake proofing a system means you know and understand where your mistakes will come from. People going into lean manufacturing are on a journey to find those mistakes and either eliminating them or accomodating them within their system. nelson97 was looking specifically for "inventory in stock" which is of little importance for a lean production facility. The answer is enough inventory to meet production demands and have a contiuous supply.

 

[DrSam]

Bill,

I agree with you. Keeping a perpetual inventory system is a waste in the long run. The long run being the time when the system is reliable and every one has confidence in it. That might take several months to achieve. After that, I agree that there is no need to know actual inventory levels.

 

[BillPSU]

I've been involved in an electronic kanban card tracking system custom written for the company by IT. The purpose was for delivery performance of a supplier and maintaining on hand materials. A card was entered into the system and the supplier was notified of the kanban card requirement via e-mail. The card was sent back to the recieving dock awaiting incoming material. The receipt of the card was entered into the system and based on the delivery date the supplier was given an ontime delivery or a late or an early delivery flag. If a delivery didn't arrive per the kanban leadtime an expeditor was notified of the shortage and the supplier would be asked to explain the late delivery. Delivery of materials to the kanban leadtimes was the key and setting the leadtime was a critical function with agreement between the supplier and the consuming company.

 

[DrSam]

Sounds just like our commercially available system. I'd love to get you to view our system and give us your feedback. We're always looking for ways to improve our software.

Sam

 

[BillPSU]

Sam

Give me some directions and I will gladly look at it.

Bill

wjpearson2005@yahoo.com

 

[mcorker]

I agree with some of the other comments. The entire point of Kanban is that it should not have to be managed. The cards should circulate. We offer an integrated Kanban Card module inside our ERP software.

We have not had many issues with lost cards. Ths two main issues we did have to address are:

A) Spike orders which would blow out the kanban levels and the fact there is no heads up. The blowout occurs at picking which is too late to react. We had to add functionality to check for this possibility when a new order is entered.

B) Sales trending up or down dictates card addition or retraction. This can be managed by software and intervene when attempting to send a new order to supplier.

Be glad to hear other thoughts on this

mcorker

http://www.seradex.com/electronic_kanban.shtml