E-Kanban – A Highly Flexible Way Of Material Ordering

Kanban system was developed in order to keep a track of the goods purchased, the material ordered and delivered to the customers or retailers. This system was used effectively by the lean manufacturers to ensure smooth buying and ordering of materials. Though the system was good and effective, it required huge paper work. It has become the base of the development of the pull systems that were based on the consumption of the goods. The main limitations of this system that lead to the introduction of E-Kanban system are data scalability and data availability.
The E-Kanbaan system is an electronic form of the traditional Kanban system. The main focus of this newly introduced system is to manage the data and maintain a smooth supply chain between the company and the suppliers. The real-time tools of this system capture all the transaction details and build a database that is ready for evaluation. The introduction of this system has enhanced the efficiency of the organization and also prevented the human error. It has become easy to evaluate the electronic records containing information regarding pull requests, electronic acknowledgement and receipt timestamps. In other words it has enhanced the inventory optimization and efficiency of the pull systems has enhanced to a great extent.
Advantages of E-KanbanrnVarious advantages offered by electronic version of kaban system are discussed below Removes the issues of missed cards. The demands for products are delivered at the right time. Minimized effort and time that was spent on managing the cards. Inventory optimization. Optimization of Kanban cards in an effective manner. Minimization of material shortages. Enhanced supply chain efficiency and transparency.
E-Kanban - Vendor requirementsrnWith the setting up of a relationship between a company and a supplier, an agreement is formed. Various terms like lead times, receipt confirmations of the order, packaged quantities and shipment notices are clearly mentioned in the agreement. It is the duty of the e-Kanban system to make sure that all these conditions are fulfilled by the supplier. If there is any fault, the system starts issuing notices and alerts to the concerned parties. It also provides a detailed report of all the activities like short shipment, late shipment and several others so that they can be evaluated in the real time.
e-Kanban - A Lean Manufacturing constituentrnBased on Six Sigma and Lean tools and principles, the main motive of this system is to enhance the flexibility of the system by minimizing the waste. It offers flexibility to the suppliers and the company so that they can respond to the order requirements in an effective manner.
An outstanding pull system makes sure that all the non value added services and activities are eliminated so that the lead times can be reduced to a great extent.