eKANBAN case study

Context

Working for a while in an environment of plants and with many projects, we have encountered that materials transport inside of the plant is the case that always generates smaller or bigger problems. On the one hand, we have internal logistics workers, who often are not equipped with any modern work support system, and even if the organization has invested in the implementation of the kanban, it is usually complicated and difficult to use system. On the other hand, we have production workers for whom ordering components and half-finished products is an unwanted necessity wasting their time which should be used to realize production plan.

While analyzing the case, we have noticed 3 main factors causing internal factory transport to be inefficient, unclear and impossible to control.

Delays

With no doubt delays in the supply of components and half-finished products are the main problems occurring on the edge of the logistics-production system, and whatsoever one of the main factors of low completion of production plans. Delays cause wasting the time needed to produce planned number of components and also affect the quality of producing details and increase the number of reclamations form the clients.

Misleading comunication

The second of the main issues is misleading communication between those who order(production department) and those who deliver(internal logistics department). It often happens, that materials are delivered according to the plan. However, materials delivered are not materials that have been ordered or are not delivered in ordered quantity. This leads to even bigger delays and decreases the quality of manufactured products.

Lack of data to analyze

In constantly changing environment of the plant menaging each proccess, including material's transportation proccess is the key factor. However without neccessary data available on the spot analyzing is either very tough or even impossible. Usually, the logistic's leader has no subordinate, who could up to date do analysis. Because of that leader constantly has to choose: whether to realize current tasks or increase process quality. Often the realization of current tasks is chosen and an unchanged process in a changing environment degrades and becomes less efficient.

Solution

Having skills enabling us to use advanced information technologies, we have decided to approach the material transportation topic and offer our customers a solution based on easy-to-use and available on-line app, eKANBANAPP.

Features

Analysis screen

User, who hass the role of analyst assigned in the system is able to look over orders list and detailed statisticks of organization.

Main features available for analyst role:

Tabelaric view of orders combined with every major detail of an order such as order number, quantity, department, status or a deliverer.
Graph with the number of orders. With the option to filter results and choosing periods.
Graph of realization time with division on reaction time and transport time.
Graph of accumulation of orders and products
Statistics of usage of warehouse space
Anulation pareto

Operator screen

The second main feature of eKANBAN is an operator role. From that level, the user can add new orders of products from the warehouse to a production spot.

Within the operator permissions we can distinguish:

Adding new orders.
Browsing the list of orders.
Redoing finished orders.

Delivery truck operator screen

Delivery truck operators' role provides an easy way to take an order and to notify the operator about the delivery of the order. Details view helps to easily see production's localization and delivery destination.

Within the delivery truck's operator permissions we can distinguish:

Viewing the queue of actual orders.
Taking an order and notifying about delivering an order.
Informing about order's problems.

Characteristics

eKANBAN, such as other applications made by Ruby Logic, has the following characteristics:

It is available online via a safe, encrypted connection. It is enough to have connection to the internet to start the usage of the app in a matter of minutes.

We assumed, that some of the users are not proficient at the usage of computers/tablets, so we designed the app which is maximally simple to use both from computers and from tablets.

The key factor in the matter of speeding up and improving the process of transport is a propagation of the information in real-time. Thanks to the usage of real-time technology, all process sites are informed about making an order, or a change in order's status in a matter of seconds.

In application were marked visually information that enables proper identification of the material and quantity in that way to eliminate wrong orders.

The application is fully managed from the administrator's panel both before implementation and during the work. It allows for example reconfiguration of the plant's layout and the direction of material flow from day to day, from shift to shift, and even from hour to hour.

Every key indicator as graphs and statements are available in real-time in a few shots of time. Moreover, it is possible to export the list of orders with all details to XLSX format in order to make an advanced analysis.

Benefits

Benefits of eKANBANAPP application can be noticed even before implementation. As the application is available on-line and hosted on Ruby Logic's servers, average launching and employee training time are on average 10 workdays.Whatsmore, the implementation of a new employee lasts only an hour of training, after what worker is ready to work with eKANBANAPP.

Utilizing powerful application's tools, most of our clients noticed a significant improvement in all key indicators already in the first days after launch:

The average delivery time was reduced by more than a half

The number of orders realized by the system doubled

Compliance of the delivery with an order increased to over 98%