The KANBAN system responds to the concept of practical management invented by the Japanese company Toyota in the 1950s. KANBAN means "sign".
That company kept it a secret as a strategic weapon to outperform the competition. Years later it came to light and the KANBAN first revolutionized the automotive industry throughout the world and later, it is used in all types of companies for its simplicity of operation and great benefits that it brings to the management of the flow of materials and reduction of inventories.
It has been shown that practical management through what is known as "The Visual Factory" is able to improve the performance of companies by reducing production time by up to 14%.
Most companies are poorly organized, which makes them waste time and resources in addition to the existing knowledge of their employees.
In order to alleviate the deficiencies in the different phases of production, the concept of the visual factory is developed. This concept is the one that has been applied in supermarkets for years, where any customer who enters is aware of where things are and is self-sufficient to make their own decisions.
With this new organizational model, all the details are evident, so that any error becomes perfectly visible. Therefore, it allows detecting problems in their initial phase, in addition to making the most of the latent resources of each person, which means a minimum investment.
Each component is assigned a priority, be it the raw material, work tools, the final product, etc., a specific and adjusted place known to all employees, which allows each of them to quickly make a general evaluation of the situation. In the case of a factory, with just a glance, any worker can do the stock control, know the situation of each production phase, calculate the processed material and the pending processing, see if the established objectives are being met, etc.
Our practical experience has shown after the application of the visual method that companies have more physical space and potential than they were using in recent years.
Similarly, a more sophisticated but equally ideal concern is making information and knowledge visible. The simple display in real time of the indicators through "dashboards" allows to visualize what is happening at different levels and to correctly handle the "current" knowledge.
The visual method manages to make processes evident, improves organization, allows taking early decisions in the face of permanent changes in circumstances and foresees the appearance of problems; All of this ultimately translates into: an improvement in the working environment (less discussions, tensions, etc.), a reduction in the production cycle, an increase in capacity and, consequently, in economic benefits for shareholders.
