One fine day, when I was walking to the Shipping Office, I found some gearboxes stored outside that were disorganized and I identified potential risk of falling and injuring someone or damaging the product. From investigation, I came to know that they were overflow of the inventory because these products get shipped from overseas.

Image 1: Before Pictures

So, I worked with the Warehouse and Inventory crew, to determine the stock level, and optimum order limit based on consumption and sales report. That gave us an idea of how many parts we can store in our inventory for use, and how much room to leave for the overflow inventory.

Image 2: Rough Napkin-sketch of the Idea

Then, we built 3 lanes, 2 lanes for incoming products, and 1 lane for outgoing. ‘Last In’ products were saved in one of the incoming lanes and once it reaches it’s capacity, we blocked the lane using the barrier posts. The lane that had the ‘First In’ parts (not blocked by barrier post) marked to be the Outgoing Lane, from where material handlers pick the parts. Once the parts from Outgoing Lane is fully exhausted, that lane will be left open to stock up new incoming parts, whereas the other lane that was blocked previously will now be open. The overflow parts were segregated and stored in a different spot.

Image 3: After Pics

Key lessons I learned from this project was the importance of Kanban system implementation and providing a proper training to employees. Kanban is a visual management system that helps to establish clear inventory limits, improve material flow, and manage incoming and outgoing inventory. By reorganizing the parts and establishing the lanes, everybody had the visibility on the availability of the products and any problems related to material handling or managing the inventory.

In addition, training the warehouse and material handling teams was critical to ensure everyone understood the lane management and FIFO principles for a long-term sustainability. This project demonstrated how a simple visual management system, combined with standardized work practices can improve safety, operational efficiency, and manufacturing flow.