Calculate kanban card counts and container sizes from demand rate, replenishment lead time and an agreed safety factor.
Quality & Productivity
Kanban Pull Systems and Work-in-Progress Limits for Production Flow
Design kanban card and bin systems, calculate work-in-progress limits with Little's Law, and run the daily replenishment routines that keep production flow visible and bottlenecks exposed early.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Production lines that look busy are not always producing well: work piles up between stations, expediting becomes routine, and nobody can say how much is really in progress at any moment. A kanban pull system replaces that guesswork with a signal: nothing is made or moved until a downstream process asks for it, and a work-in-progress limit keeps that request honest. This course teaches the calculations behind kanban card counts, container sizes and buffer levels, and the discipline needed to keep cards, bins and boards telling the truth about the line. Teaching moves between the arithmetic of sizing a pull loop and the shop-floor habits of running one, using line layouts and demand data participants bring from their own operation wherever possible. Sessions build from reading current flow and calculating a first card count through to piloting a work-in-progress limit, auditing kanban discipline, and extending pull signals to suppliers through milk-run replenishment. Participants finish able to design, size and defend a kanban system against the batching habits that quietly undo it.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Set work-in-progress limits at each station that reflect its cycle time against the line's takt time.
Design card, two-bin and electronic kanban signals suited to a line's part variety and order volume.
Pilot a work-in-progress limit on one line segment and adjust it using cycle time and defect data.
Audit kanban card counts and board discipline to catch lost cards, duplicated signals and workarounds.
Extend a pull signal upstream to suppliers through a kanban loop tied to actual consumption, not forecast.
Resize kanban loops on a scheduled review as demand, product mix or lead time change over the year.
Who Should Attend
Production and operations supervisors introducing a pull system on an existing line.
Industrial and manufacturing engineers responsible for line layout and material flow.
Lean and continuous improvement practitioners supporting a kanban rollout.
Materials and inventory planners who manage replenishment and supplier schedules.
Team leaders and shift managers who will run daily kanban and supermarket routines.
Plant and value stream managers sponsoring a move from batch to pull production.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Diagnosing Current Flow and Designing Kanban Signals
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reading Current Flow Before Introducing a Pull System
- Map the current process step by step to find where inventory piles up between stations before any card is designed.
- Measure current lead time, cycle time and demand rate so the pull system is sized against real figures, not assumption.
- Distinguish processes suited to a kanban pull system from those better served by a build-to-order or batch approach.
- Identify the constraint operation whose pace will set the rhythm every kanban loop upstream and downstream must follow.
Session 2Designing Card, Bin and Electronic Kanban Signals
- Choose between card, bin and electronic kanban signals based on part variety, order volume and line layout.
- Design a kanban card that states part number, container quantity, source and destination location without ambiguity.
- Lay out a two-bin system so an empty bin becomes the reorder signal without a supervisor's manual intervention.
- Build a heijunka box that sequences kanban cards to level the mix and volume released to the line each period.
02Calculating Card Counts and Work-in-Progress Limits
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Calculating Kanban Card Counts and Buffer Sizes
- Apply the standard kanban formula linking demand rate, replenishment lead time and a safety factor to card count.
- Set container and bin sizes that balance storage space against the response time a single card represents.
- Use Little's Law to check that a proposed card count matches the work-in-progress the line can actually carry.
- Build a buffer for demand variability without inflating card counts to the point the pull signal loses meaning.
Session 2Setting and Testing Work-in-Progress Limits Across a Line
- Set a work-in-progress limit at each station that reflects its cycle time relative to the line's takt time.
- Pilot a proposed limit on one line segment before extending it, so early friction is caught on a small scale.
- Track how a lowered work-in-progress limit exposes a hidden bottleneck that batch working had been concealing.
- Adjust limits using cycle time and defect data gathered during the pilot rather than a single planning assumption.
03Running and Auditing the Pull System on the Shop Floor
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Running Daily Replenishment and Supermarket Routines
- Run a fixed-route material handling circuit that collects kanban cards and replenishes supermarkets on a set cycle.
- Position a supermarket location so operators can retrieve parts without leaving their primary work sequence.
- Brief team leaders on the escalation steps to follow when a replenishment cycle is missed or arrives late.
- Set a visual reorder point on every supermarket lane so a shortage is visible before it stops the line.
Session 2Auditing Kanban Discipline and Correcting Signal Failures
- Audit kanban card counts against the physical inventory on the floor to catch cards that were lost or duplicated.
- Investigate a work-in-progress limit breach as a signal of a process problem rather than a rule to override.
- Correct operator workarounds, such as batching several cards together, that quietly defeat the pull signal's intent.
- Record kanban-related downtime and shortages in a log that feeds the next card count and buffer size review.
04Extending Pull to Suppliers and Scaling Across Lines
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Connecting Kanban to Suppliers and Upstream Processes
- Extend the pull signal to a supplier through a supplier kanban loop tied to actual consumption, not a forecast.
- Design a milk-run collection route that lets one delivery replenish several kanban loops on a single circuit.
- Set inventory and lead-time buffers for supplier kanban that account for transport time and delivery variability.
- Align supplier kanban card counts with contract review points so terms and volumes are renegotiated on schedule.
Session 2Scaling, Digitising and Continuously Resizing the System
- Compare card-based and electronic kanban for a specific line, weighing floor visibility against data capture.
- Roll out a pilot pull system to a second line using the lessons and card-sizing method from the first.
- Resize kanban loops on a fixed review cycle as demand, product mix or lead time shift over the year.
- Combine kanban with a constant work-in-progress approach where product variety makes fixed card counts impractical.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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