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Manufacturing · Definition

Kanban

A signal-driven replenishment system that pulls work through a process.

Kanban uses a signal — a card, an emptied bin, a slot on a board — to authorise the next batch of work or the next delivery. Nothing is produced or moved until a downstream signal asks for it.

The number of kanbans in circulation caps work in progress, which is what makes a bottleneck visible instead of hiding it behind piles of part-finished stock.

Also called

  • pull system
  • two-bin system

Kanban is not just a definition here

Manufacturing runs on this vocabulary every day in AWRA OpsHub — 14 of our 257 glossary terms describe things the platform actually does.