The Art of Kanban - Creative Safety Supply April 2014 | Page 9

The Art of Kanban

ORIGINS OF KANBAN

As previously mentioned Kanban began in Japan. The world renowned
carmaker Toyota began studying supermarkets in the 1940s. Supermarkets
have a unique in store system that use in store stocking techniques. Their
system always provides for adequate amounts of products on the shelves
without having to store excess amounts because customers know they can
always return to the store for more. Toyota believed that this same process
could be applied to the factory floor. The demand for the product guided the
ordering of products and their placement on the shelves. In 1953 Toyota
began using this system of Kanban in the machine shop of their main plant.

At Toyota they applied a number of rules to Kanban and to their plant which
helped tie the whole system together. Some of the rules included to never
sending defective products down the line, and withdrawing only what is
needed in the process. These rules may seem obvious, but in writing them
down and actually implementing them in the running of a plant they were not

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