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The inspiration behind the creation of the Kanban system was the American supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly. During a visit in 1956, Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Kanban system, was inspired by the supermarket's method of tracking demand and restocking based on that demand. This led him to develop the Kanban system, where paper cards were used across the supply chain to track demand and signal actions as needed. This system improved efficiency, reduced stockpiling, and provided visibility throughout the whole supply chain.
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The epiphany came in 1956 when Ohno went to the US and visited the American supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly. The system inspired him to use paper cards across the supply chain to track demand and signal actions as needed. These cards would be attached to the production line until a card was finished. The card would then be attached to the car, and once it is sold, the card would go back to the production line. Only when the card would return to the line could the workers start developing a new product. Even then, cards would be held in a "pending queue" until they hit a specific number, which indicated there was enough demand to continue. (Source) Cards weren't just used for cars - but every material in the production process had its own Kanban card so that suppliers would work off the same system. This reduced stockpiling, improved efficiency, and provided visibility throughout the whole supply chain. By 1964, the Kanban system spread throughout the whole company and was used across...
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Need a simple but effective workflow to manage projects? Use our Kanban Board Spreadsheet to visually track and organize a project's most important ta...
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If you are in the business of project management, an agile approach is the way to go. Use our Kanban presentation to motivate your team for collaboration, optimize project delivery speed and improve responses to fast-paced market trends.
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Taiichi Ohno, the inventor of the Toyota Production System and author of the book by the same name, offers readers lessons in thinking. Readers will learn more about the thought processes than the actual production steps, but that is the point. By learning how to think and analyze, readers will be able to design more efficient processes specific to their product or service.
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