Electronic Kanban

What is an Electronic Kanban?

An electronic kanban is a term that describes a decentralised control system based on the fetch principle and involving electronic systems. Due to their complexity and variety of variants, the electronic kanban system i.e. a software support for traditional manual Kanban systems, can help to quickly counteract problems or bottlenecks.

In the warehouses with an electronic Kanban system, the control of the material flow is done by containers (Kanban containers) or by Kanban cards. These Kanban cards serve as a classic means of identification on the goods and have the advantage that only the electronic information on the card (eKanban) has to be transported to trigger a subsequent delivery. A Kanban control system with two containers is widely used. While one container is in production, the second container is on the way to be refilled.

Three variants are distinguished, depending on whether only one container is prepared and picked from a warehouse (warehouse Kanban), ordered (supplier Kanban) or post-produced (production Kanban).