The nervous system of the operation KANBAN
In the TPS (Toyota Production System) or lean production system, kanban is not a system (as many people misunderstand), but a communication tool of the pull system. Simply put, one process notifies the previous process of the amount of product it uses via kanban and the previous process produces the amount of kanban received from the next process. When this process covers all processes from shipment to raw material supply, a complete pull system is established.
Bu konuyu değişik bir açıdan ele alalım. Müşterinize sevk ettiğiniz ambalaj veya paket üzerinde bulunan kanban etiketinde o ambalaj veya paket içinde kaç adet ürün olduğu mutlaka yazılı olacaktır. Dolayısı ile siz müşterinize kanban üzerinde yazılı olan adet kadar fatura kesecek ve Kanban müşterinizde size o miktar kadar ödeme yapacaktır. Kanban uygulamasının kapsama alanı tedarikçinizi de içine alıyorsa, tedarikçiniz de aynı şekilde size fatura kesecek ve siz de ona göre ödeme yapacaksınız. (Burada kanban uygulamasının temel kuralı olan ambalaj içindeki ürünlerin kalitesel ve miktarsal uygunluğunun %100 uygun olması gerektiğini de hatırlatmak isterim.) Diğer bir deyişle, kanbanı tüm bu süreçler içinde bir şekilde “para” yerine geçtiğini düşünmek yanlış olmaz.
When we say that Kanban equals money, it is inevitable that the planning department should work with the principle of a central bank.
Let's explain why: According to your current regular orders, the amount of kanban you have determined in your system is used. If the order increases, you need to add the required number of kanbans to your system. Otherwise, the amount of kanban in your system will not be able to meet the increasing customer demand and in the worst case, it will be inevitable that you will be unable to make shipments. This means that your company will not be able to make money. On the other hand, if the order decreases, the amount of kanban in your system will be too much, you will produce unnecessarily and as a result, your stocks will start to increase. In other words, you will have realized the most important one of the 7 basic mudas, the overproduction mudas. The other meaning of this is that you will spend money in vain.
It is in such situations that the planning department works as a central bank. It should be able to eliminate the risk of under-shipment by adding kanbans to the market in case of order increases, and by transferring the increase in demand to all processes in a balanced way. And vice versa, i.e. in case of order decreases, it should prevent overproduction by reducing the amount of kanban in the system. Of course, the most important factor to be considered here is to add or subtract in a balanced (heijunka) manner to all processes in the reduction or multiplication. Without this balancing, non-delivery or overproduction will be inevitable.
