Optimization of card maintenance and sizing in a kanban system

The Lean Transformation and Digitalization Journey of El.Co.

Manual kanban is a simple, visual, and highly effective tool for managing material flow. However, as the system grows and involves an increasing number of parts and production lines, scalability-related limitations begin to emerge. In particular, the maintenance and sizing of kanban cards (such as updating data, reprinting cards, or modifying their quantity) start to significantly absorb time and resources.

It is precisely at this stage that many companies face a crossroads: continue with a now rigid system or evolve towards a leaner and more efficient digital management.
El.Co. Srl chose the path of digital innovation.

Overview of El.Co. Srl, specialist in industrial electrical automation

El.Co. Srl is a company with over thirty years of experience in the industrial electrical automation sector. Founded in 1986, it has evolved over time, expanding its core business from assembling electrical panels to supplying advanced electronic components to customers all around the world. Leading its innovation today is Nicolò Zaffonato, Chief Operating Officer, Lean Manager, and Member of the Board of Directors, who brought a fresh vision to the company based on Lean principles and the strategic use of technology, including electronic kanban.

El.Co.’s Lean transformation: from push production to manual kanban

El.Co. used to be a classic push production company, where production orders were based on demand forecasts. With the arrival of Nicolò Zaffonato (COO), who had previously gained significant experience in companies where Lean principles were already well established, a gradual Lean transformation process was launched. This included a major physical reorganization of work areas and training employees in Lean logic and methods.

Two years later, the company introduced manual kanban, personally set up and managed in every aspect by the COO: kanban cards created in PowerPoint, printed and laminated by hand, applied to containers with double-sided tape. Excel sheets filled with massive amounts of data and formulas to determine optimal kanban sizing. An outstanding effort that led El.Co. to significantly improve the management of material and production flow, but with a scalability issue.

Problems in managing and maintaining the manual kanban system

The success of the manual system was evident from the beginning. However, as kanban expanded to an increasing number of parts and production lines, the limitations of the manual system related to kanban maintenance began to emerge.

This is because maintaining a manual kanban system requires two types of activities:

The manual input of consumption data into Excel sheets and the recalculation of parameters for kanban sizing in order to decide whether to add or remove kanban cards
The physical addition or removal of kanban cards, which went beyond simply adding or removing one card. It required the reprinting of all cards for a given part so that the label “Card 1 of X” was always updated to reflect the total number of cards. These then had to be set up, printed, laminated, and replaced.

As long as the number of parts managed with kanban was low, these activities, although labor-intensive, were still manageable. But within a few months, with 16 production lines managed through kanban, El.Co. had to allocate two people for three workdays every two months just to update data and reprint kanban cards.

As the number of lines managed with kanban increased, so did the time required for system maintenance. We reached our limit when my colleague and I found ourselves every two months spending three full days calculating and adding/removing kanban cards. A massive effort that took time away from other Lean transformation activities.

– Nicolò Zaffonato, Chief Operating Officer, Lean Manager and Member of the Board of Directors, El.Co.

This was a costly activity, made only partially sustainable by the relatively stable demand in the sectors served by the company: unlike many sectors subject to frequent and significant fluctuations in consumption, El.Co. could afford to update kanban sizing (by adding or removing a card) only every two months. However, even in this favorable context, manual management began to show its limits.

The workload required for kanban system maintenance was so high that management was forced to limit the number of parts managed via kanban, penalizing those with lower turnover. Under these conditions, it became clear that manual kanban, though effective, was not a scalable solution. Hence the need to move to electronic kanban, a system the COO had already learned about during the Lean Management Master he attended before introducing manual kanban at El.Co.

How Electronic Kanban solved management and maintenance problems of manual system

Thanks to the company’s strong internal preparation and familiarity with manual kanban, the introduction of electronic kanban with KanbanBOX at El.Co. was quick and effective. From the beginning, the pilot line delivered positive results, showing how the software allowed the company to overcome the limitations that had previously hindered method expansion to more parts and production lines.

In particular, KanbanBOX proved essential in addressing two key areas of kanban system management:

Automatic sizing calculation
Since the software tracks all relevant data for each card (such as consumption frequency, management policy, and quantity per card) manual data entry is no longer needed. Additionally, based on this information, KanbanBOX automatically suggests the ideal number of cards to use and indicates when to add or remove them. Final decisions still rest with the Lean Manager, who can factor in operational constraints such as space limits or minimum order quantities.

Simplified and dynamic card management
Unlike the manual system, with electronic kanban the Lean Manager doesn’t need to reprint and modify existing cards whenever the total number changes: each card generated by KanbanBOX has a unique code and is designed to be disposable. When a kanban is consumed, the card is deleted and the system automatically generates a new one, ready for printing with just one click.
In case of an increase in cards, the software automatically generates the new template; in case of reduction, simply no new card is generated when the last one is consumed.

To complete the system, the software’s “Dashboard” section provides a clear overview of all active cards in real time, allowing operators to monitor their status (available, in process, to be replenished, etc.) and take targeted action.

Benefits from the introduction of Electronic Kanban

The adoption of KanbanBOX software for implementing an electronic kanban system brought significant results to El.Co.

First of all, it effectively addressed the COO’s need to reduce the time spent on kanban maintenance. Now, what previously took three days of work for two people every two months, can be done in just a few minutes each day, simply by accepting or rejecting resizing suggestions from the software and printing any new cards.

Beyond this key achievement, the use of KanbanBOX enabled El.Co. to obtain additional benefits, including:

Doubling the number of codes managed via kanban, from about 120 to 241 active links, plus 304 closed orders (called Synchro)
Extending kanban management to low-turnover components, such as reels of electronic components, previously excluded to avoid overburdening the maintenance process
Integrating KanbanBOX with the company ERP, allowing the automatic inclusion of the external supplier’s name on each kanban card
Reducing lead time, with the goal of further minimizing it in the future—going from 4-5 weeks to 2 days for make-to-order, and from 10 to 5 days for make-to-stock

El.Co. also uses KanbanBOX as a support tool for building Value Stream Maps for individual components and departments, contributing to a clearer and more shared view of flows.

Having already covered production and internal logistics, El.Co. Srl is now extending the use of the software to purchasing management as well.

With KanbanBOX, kanban maintenance and sizing activities are now much leaner and faster. We’ve been able to extend kanban management to more lines and low-turnover parts that we previously excluded to avoid overloading the maintenance process.

– Nicolò Zaffonato, Chief Operating Officer, Lean Manager and Member of the Board of Directors, El.Co.

To learn more about El.Co.’s Lean Transformation story, read the interview with Nicolò Zaffonato, Chief Operating Officer, Lean Manager, and Member of the Board of Directors of El.Co. Srl, who led the company’s Lean innovation journey.