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KANBAN

Kanban -- Japanese for a sign board. Designates a pull production means of communicating need for product or service. Kanbans were originally developed to communicate between operations in different locations. It was intended to communicate a change in demand or supply. In application it is generally used to trigger the movement of material to or through a process. Normally, a small card attached to boxes of parts that regulate pull in the Toyota Production System by signaling upstream production and delivery.

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