From Kristen Watson: Should I implement a kanban “point solution”?

Just the other day I became interested in what had evolved regarding kanban tools and I did a quick search of the internet. A couple of hours later, I was more than a bit surprised by the number of point solutions that were targeted at helping companies identify where kanban might be utilized to drive significant savings in inventory. Some companies even offered 30 day trials and promoted easy integration approaches for acquiring the data required to deliver value. Given my past experience in implementing Lean, I was intrigued by the sales pitch to implement a point solution rather than leverage kanban as part of a much larger initiative to create a Lean value chain. I’m not at all convinced that the uninitiated will recognize the very importance difference and potential limitations or pitfalls of a purely point solution.
What these companies are offering is a tool that will essentially do the math to recommend kanban parameters (total kanban inventory and re-order point quantities) and incorporate logic to address demand variation as a safety factor. Based on the results, the suggested level of inventory is compared to the actual levels and inventory savings is calculated. Seems simple, and to a large degree it is, but the decision is completely removed from the value chain perspective. At this point you are probably thinking that I am offering some kind of zen based perspective driven by a Lean ideology. The truth is much simpler….Read more and comment on the blog at: http://blog.kinaxis.com/2009/05/should-i-implement-a-kanban-point-s...

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