ABSTRACT
The word “Kanban” and its model used in production are credited to Taiichi Ohno of Toyota and are a vital part of the Toyota Production System. The supermarkets Ohno saw were using a visual min–max inventory system for managing shelf stock. Toyota and many manufacturers since have used a Kanban system to create a visual min–max style inventory system for every aspect of the production process from raw material storage, work in progress, and parts through to finished goods. The Kanban approach to sales pipeline management, coupled with a quality approach to rapid visual meetings and one-on-ones, avoids these situations occurring. The salesperson may choose to reduce the volume of projects in the Kanban pipeline for some time while they focus on the more significant opportunities. The key with any Kanban system is to keep it full and moving without bottlenecks and the build-up of breaks at any one stage.
