Description of the Kanban process

Kinetic ERP
1

I am trying to use the ROP(Re-order Point) process when purchasing raw materials.
Then I came to know about the Kanban process.
The Kanban process looks similar to the ROP process, but what’s the difference?
I’m not familiar with the Kanban process, could you please briefly explain this?(what features and how it works)
Thank you in advance!

2

Is “Reorder Point Process” an SAP thing?

I feel like there is some background I am missing with this term.

I guarantee others here have much more familiarity with Kanban in Epicor, but I think the basic idea is that for any given part, you use Kanban OR MRP but not both. With MRP you plan ahead; with Kanban the system reacts to OH levels, mins, maxes, etc. in real time.

Kanban settings are here (table is PartBinInfo, I think):

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So you can get super picky about “if bin A is low, pull from bin B; if bin B is low, pull from C; if C is low, buy or make more, etc.”

You can also do this at the “Detail” tab on the 4th row in the pic (I’m showing the 5th row in the pic). I found that frustrating, personally, but regardless, don’t put settings on both for the same part. Use one or the other.

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3

Thanks for your detailed explanation.
I didn’t quite understand the Kanban Process, but your explanation made me vaguely aware that it didn’t fit my company’s business processes.
An unresolved question is how it differs from the ROP feature in the figure below.

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4

Those are MRP settings and not Kanban settings.

MRP is simpler/cruder. MRP looks at the whole site’s OH qty and gives suggestions to buy or make more. Then it’s your people’s jobs to find a place for it when it arrives.

Kanban is micromanaging. You can say down to a warehouse or bin what should happen.

I think typically in most places, a part has:

  1. A point of use location
  2. A larger storage area where #2 is filled from
  3. Additional storage areas if needed (overflow storage)

And fundamentally the part is consumed by a job or shipment (or transfer out) - that’s the missing #1 in my chart. That’s the thing that triggers the Kanban cascade in the first place.

What I’m leading to here is what’s called the Material Queue in Epicor. If you have Kanban set up (meaning these PartBinInfo settings in Part Maintenance), then a shipment (for example) will reduce the OH qty in a bin (#2) below THAT BIN’s minimum OH, which creates a Mtl Queue record saying to move material out of its supply source (say #3), and when that gets low, another move is suggested from 4 to 3, maybe, and then maybe you say the supply source of bin #4 is to add a release to an existing PO that you set up ahead of time. Or Kanban can actually make jobs to make the part.

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