What is Kanban? Kanban is a concept that originated from the Japanese manufacturing sector during the late 1940s. The literal meaning of Kanban in Japanese is “signal” or “flag.”  Taiichi Ohno, the “father” of Kanban, developed the concept because he realized a rather simple principle: no company should start producing any product until one or more customers at the end of the supply chain indicated they needed another product. It enabled the “just-in-time’ manufacturing approach to become the standard it …