subject: Using Kanban Simulations To Improve Reactions To Actual Issues [print this page] The Kanban system has been around for a long time. And although the system was initially developed for use in software development projects, the system is now more commonly used as a solution for the demand-and-supply analysis needs of manufacturing companies.
The Kanban system works through signboards that signal a new demand, the quantity needed, the process and materials needed for its production, and the timeframe of its production. This system is directly triggered by the needs of clients and customers. One case may vary from the other, but the Kanban system efficiently adjusts from one project iteration to another.
Since many companies are employing the use of the electronic Kanban system in their business processes, developers are coming up with ways to help the system fit the needs of your company. There are five commonly-used types of Kanban: the supplier or external Kanban, the transport or redistribution Kanban, the production Kanban, the Kanban for finished goods, and the customer Kanban.
These Kanbans provide for the particular needs of specific types of companies or business. The use of Kanban systems is made slightly rigid, though, by the systems set of equally inflexible rules. As an answer to this and for further training, Kanban presentations have included the use of a Kanban simulation.
A Kanban simulation replicates the processes of the actual Kanban system. This allows employees and trainees to effectively practice what they learned during their theoretical training and to get more familiarized with the kind of Lean thinking that the system requires.
Although the Kanban system is easy to learn in terms of theory, operating the system, for a fresh-from-the-workshop employee, may be an unnerving experience. And if a student makes a mistake while working with the system, their companys Kanban system may in some way fail, and this may cause permanent damage to consumer-producer relationship. This is what makes the use of Kanban simulation, prior to applying the Kanban system to actual production, most convenient and efficient. The simulation does not only allow a worker to understand the actual capacity of the system but the logic of its use as well.
