Implementation of internal and production e-kanban and e-kanban with suppliers

From push to pull in BCS Group

The BCS Group is a leading multinational company in the mechanization industry.

In 2020 they embarked on a kaizen improvement journey to increase production efficiency and become more Lean. Among the planned projects, there’s also the kanban system implementation.

For this project, the BCS group was looking for a partner to move from push logics to pull logics of materials management fast and in a massive way for all the group’s plants.

Thanks to the continuous improvement work carried out with a partner of ours, the company discovered KanbanBOX, the electronic kanban software. BCS chose the e-kanban to manage different material flows in a pull and digital way, namely

The flows of materials that BCS buys (kanban with suppliers)
The flows of materials that BCS produces (production kanban)
The flows of materials handled within the company (Handling or Internal Kanban)

BCS began the implementation of the e-kanban with a pilot project within the Headquarters, with the future goal of extending the project to the other plants of the group.

Below, we will describe the three implementations BCS has made of KanbanBOX.

“Given for granted the economic saving, for us the real success of KanbanBOX has been to allow us to move from PUSH to PULL logics. Indeed, we managed to revolutionize a longstanding habit.”

Valeria Castoldi – BCS Group Continuous Improvement Manager

E-kanban with Suppliers in BCS

BCS decided to use KanbanBOX to roll out a digital purchase kanban system because it was facing some issues related to its Supply Chain.

BCS had no external visibility into supplier processes.
It didn’t know the true Lead Time of the products ordered from suppliers.
It didn’t know the true dimensioning of its stock (there was a gap between the book inventory and the physical one).

On the one hand, the BCS group was seeking a simple system of information exchange with suppliers, to have shared visibility over the entire supply chain.

On the other, it wanted to manage inventory flexibly, adapting to market dynamics and changes.

Thus the E-Kanban with suppliers project in BCS began.

E-kanban with suppliers in BCS: the results

Since the first implementation of KanbanBOX in 2021, more than 10 suppliers have been connected for free. This results in a total of about 300 purchasing kanban loops. The company is currently planning to expand the project to other suppliers.

So far, the results achieved are:

The purchasing department is saving time.
Goods are received faster at the warehouse.
The material is stocked in the warehouse faster.

Internal e-kanban in BCS

Later, BCS decided to replace the existing internal kanban. This is a semi-manual system managed through the AS400 ERP, customized for their use case.

Lacking consumption statistics, the people in charge of internal logistics had to manually do the material stocks maintenance, that is to say verifying the current stock and align the kanban cards in the production areas.

BCS didn’t have real-time visibility of the status of kanban cards, so maintaining the more than 3000 cards in use was complex. The process was slow and rigid. The company had to rely on spreadsheets to figure out how many kanbans needed to be kept next to the production line, which made the process time-consuming and error-prone.

In addition, physical kanban cards used to be lost (this is one of the main limitations of manual kanban systems). The consequence was the waste of time for the operators, with the added risk of production downtime.

Thus, the company decided to digitize the internal kanban through KanbanBOX in all 3 plants (with over 1200 loops each).

“The program developed in the ERP system was stable and reliable, but it did not allow any kind of analysis into the past, such as analysis on stock breaks or other suggestions to re-adjust stock levels based on actual needs. All this and more has been found in KanbanBOX.”
V. Castoldi – BCS Group Continuous Improvement Manager).

Internal electronic kanban in BCS: the results

KanbanBOX had a feature to do maintenance automatically and it currently brings great improvement to BCS operators who handle materials daily. They can now work more efficiently on value-added activities. In KanbanBOX, statistics are updated in real time, too.

Finally, the problem of lost cards is solved. Thanks to FIFO reporting, the company can quickly identify problems, such as lost kanban cards, or cards that have been used in the wrong order.

Now the warehouse

has real-time visibility of consumption.
has real-time visibility of stock in the various supermarkets on the line.
doesn’t have to manage boxes’ reverse logistics, thanks to disposable cards.

Finally, BCS no longer plays it by ear. Operators now always exactly knows when to reduce the stock of material in the supermarkets, or when it needs to be increased.

Production e-kanban in BCS

After the implementation of the purchasing and internal e-kanban systems, BCS decided to involve internal production departments in charge of servicing the other plants. The production e-kanban system enables the group to collaborate better, facilitating internal operations.

Thanks to KanbanBOX, the company has been able to:

limit overproduction
Reduce lead time
Improve Time to Market
Reduce inventory and thus WIP between steps
Level production

In the future, the software will also give BCS the ability to connect with subcontractors to increase collaboration and reduce Lead Time even in outsourced processes.

BCS achievements using the e-kanban KanbanBOX

Today the BCS group manages a total of 6,000 kanban loops between internal and production kanban, and kanban with suppliers, among the three plants.

Moreover, KanbanBOX has also been integrated with the company’s new ERP: SAP.

“KanbanBOX is an excellent and highly competent partner. From training to integration, they have always understood our needs and supported us in this significant transformation journey. Their team is extremely qualified and has helped us face the challenges in recent years: optimizing processes, reducing costs while maintaining high quality, and having immediate access to information to quickly adapt strategy”

V. Castoldi – BCS Group Continuous Improvement Manager