Kanban

Kanban is a term used used in th Just-in-Time manufacturing process. Kanban means "visual card" in Japanese. What this stands for, is the signal of any sort, that is used to alert the next stage in production that a product in process needs move on, or that something needs to be done by them quickly in order to keep inventory moving.

With the rapid development and spread of kanban usage, some companies have even developed electronic systems which serve the same purpose as the manual cues. The electronic cues are an improvement upon manual because there is no longer concern of manual entry errors or lost cards.

A great site to take a look at would be ShopFloorReporting. Kanban can become a powerful asset when it is intelligently integrated into an already existing ERP system. This allows for real-time demand signaling across the supply chain. When purchasing Supply Chain Management software, in order to be up to date with manufacturing method, be sure that Kanban is being utilized.