KANBAN production supply in SAP EWM | author: Kerim Sengul

KANBAN is a logistic concept known for years before and used on different levels in the supply chain. KANBAN literally means “Visual Sign” in Japanese and it is used to improve and manage logistic processes to lower the stock in manufacturing areas and prevent shortages on production lines. It is a proven methodology which has proved its value in different industries, projects and many more. In fact, we may use it unconsciously at home to replenish our favorite snack when the cookie box is empty??.

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KANBAN methodology from a business perspective is often integrated between the warehouse and production organization. However, from IT perspective it can be a struggle since production staff uses a MES layer or ERP and Warehouse organization is supported by WMS. And solution wise; we want to have a simple; easy-to-use tool for the shopfloor so that they can focus on the production and the quality of the products. This is now possible.

SAP Extended Warehouse Management offers various methods for staging to production. With this article we would like draw attention to Production supply with Kanban – Direct warehouse task, which is available since S/4HANA 1909 in combination with embedded EWM.

This functionality enables a seamless and simple process for the supply of parts to the production supply area. Practically this means that a production operator can manage the stock situation in the production supply area with the use of the KANBAN dashboard in SAP. Within this dashboard the operator can produce a signal which triggers a warehouse task for the operator to supply the parts from the stock to the production supply area, without the need of intermediate documents.

Big advantage for the shopfloor is that there is one overview with the status of the KANBAN containers and the possibility to trigger new replenishments from that overview. The replenishment requests integrate seamless with EWM and the replenishment is executed by the warehouse workers. After replenishment the status is updated immediately and visible for the shopfloor.

In SAP the KANBAN monitor defines clearly the different containers and the respective supply area and material. one overview to display the actual status and handsome buttons to trigger replenishment and set status or to check the specific warehouse task that will bring new supplies.

with one click the operator on the shopfloor is able to trigger a replenishment task that is executed by the warehouse worker.

The execution of the movement will update the monitor as well and via this way of working communication between warehouse and production is managed in an efficient way. In fact; as we use this in an embedded EWM environment the operators in production don't need to use MES functionality to manage the stock on the workfloor.

Effect is that the shopfloor workers can focus on the production process and visually can monitor the stock on the supply area. via simple buttons they can trigger new supplies and the status is updated automatically.

Also interested in this feature and do you want to know more? please contact us and we are looking further to improve your daily operation.

About the Author: Kerim is SAP warehouse expert and has been involved in multiple SAP WMS implementations. He is familiar with business operations and has acted as expert in all project phases from design till operational support.