• Kanban (Japanese for sign) is an inventory management system used in Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing to track production and order new batches of parts and materials.
  • Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, and uses visual cues to prompt the actions required to maintain a process.
  • One of the main purposes of kanban is to limit the accumulation of excess inventory at any point in the production line.