From Push to Pull Production

Purchase E-kanban to handle the increased market demand

Before 2020, the purchasing department used to order materials in order to reach the maximum production capacity of the line, based only on sales forecasts. Therefore, the stock of inventory increased a lot at certain times of the year. In case of a downturn in demand (as later occurred due to the pandemic), the company would have found itself with occupied space and economic value tied up unnecessarily.

In addition, the warehouse was full even when there was no need for it. Finally, sometimes the logistic department was understaffed to manage it.

From 2021, the demand Orotig had to meet increased by 300 percent. The big changes in demand that the company experienced in these years were a clear sign that it needed to be more flexible and responsive to market changes. Orotig identified Lean Production and the implementation of KanbanBOX as the solution to these problems.

So, the e-kanban project with suppliers begins. By implementing the e-kanban system, orders sent to suppliers are leveled; they’re created only when there is an actual need. Moreover, since KanbanBOX digitalizes the manual kanban method, Orotig could control the consumption in real time.

Purchase kanban in Orotig: the results

Today in KanbanBOX there are 38 Orotig suppliers and more than 800 kanban loops of material being purchased.

In just one year, the company reduced the value of raw material inventory by 7.5 percent, thus saving capital assets and space.

The WIP of semi-finished goods decreased by 48%. The inventory turnover ratio for materials managed with e-kanban increased from 3.5 in October 2023 to 6.6 in October 2024.

Finally, from 2022 till now Orotig has saved 2FTE. Two operators from the logistics department have been employed in value-added activities, who were previously busy managing excess inventory in the warehouse.

Simultaneously, Orotig implemented the production kanban for some preassembly phases. Then, it extended it to the finished product’s assembly and testing. Everything was possible thanks to KanbanBOX Multiprocess and sequential pull features.

Orotig’s problem was the manual planning of the production. Paper orders are passed from one workstation to another, and weekly planning is sent via e-mail.

As a result, the status of each semi-finished or finished product is never clear. Because of the lack of clarity, machines production often doesn’t follow the sequence required by the schedule.

Thanks to KanbanBOX, now the pre-assembly, assembly, testing and packaging departments are managed with the kanban and synchro logic, with the aim of simplifying planning and logistics operations.

The Multiprocess automatically activates the involved departments

When the planner defines the production sequence within KanbanBOX, thanks to the Multiprocess feature, the various departments involved are automatically activated: from the first pre-assembly station to the last test and inspection station.

The following operations are also activated automatically and sequentially:

• The production of some special pre-assemblies that are not managed with the kanban system.
• The movement of some components from the warehouse to the assembly lines (e.g., bulky materials that cannot fit in the supermarket).
• The packaging department, which is notified when the finished product is ready for being packed.

Thanks to Multiprocess, the planner no longer has to manually schedule the operations of each department, but all steps occur sequentially and synchronously.

The Sequencer helps align all operators and production steps

In 2023 Orotig begins to use the Sequencer as well.

Each pre-assembly station has been equipped with a tablet with the Sequencer screen. Thus, the operator can easily see the exact sequence of what to produce.

The Sequencer is also used in the assembly lines where the finished product is built. Each line operator sees the sequence of the machines to assemble and knows whether they can start working on them. Indeed, for each product the Sequencer indicates whether there is all the material needed to start, or whether it needs to be replenished.

Thanks to the e-kanban dashboard, each person to know the status of each product, always. Orotig was thus able to eliminate two important MUDAs: waiting and motion. Therefore, communication within the Operations Team became smoother.

As of today, Orotig uses KanbanBOX in 2 plants, with more than 2,000 kanban loops between purchasing, handling and production kanbans.