External Supplier Kanbans

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  When a Kanban system is running internally, the transfer of classical kanbans into different areas can be established fairly easily.  But, what if you have parts that are made by suppliers and need to be transferred externally?  In this case a supplier kanban is used in place of a withdrawal or a move kanban.  A supplier Kanban process is usually described as a connection between your external vendors and the internal kanban system. This can also work with different locations of the same company.  The companies can be linked together into a supply-chain process via Kanban and replenish effectively.

  ​Put very simply a supplier kanban can be attached to a container that is located in an inbound area of a downstream process.  When the downstream process begins consuming the materials, they remove the supplier kanban and send it to their outside supplier.  Here’s another example where we have four different points in a process including an external supplier.

1. The supplying process sends a withdrawal kanban to retrieve more materials.
2. The store pulls the materials and delivers them to fill the supply processes demand needs.  This now leaves the store without some materials.
3. In order to replenish, the store that holds raw materials sends a kanban to the materials supplier requesting more materials from the appropriate vendor.
4. The vendor then delivers to the store to fill the store's demand needs.

Remember there are many different ways that kanban can be implemented.  A best practice is to include any suppliers that you are working with to ensure that everyone understands the process. 

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