KANBAN is a particular method of production and material flow based on a backward linking principle of operations in production. The replenishment or the production of a material is only triggered when a higher production level actually requires the material.

In KANBAN, the signal for material replenishment can be triggered, for example, by the work center that requires the material who sends a card to the work center responsible for manufacturing the material. This card describes which material is required, the quantity of the material required and where the material is to be delivered. The name kanban originally stems from these cards which are called "kanban" in Japanese.

A further advantage of the KANBAN method of production is that replenishment data is transferred automatically, that is, the employee in production only has to scan the bar code to pass on all the necessary data for replenishment as well as for posting the goods receipt when the material is delivered.

Using the Internet Application Component KANBAN, the supplier can access information on empty containers directly in the Internet. Therefore, this type of replenishment processing is an alternative to sending the supplier the kanban (card) or giving the suppliers kanbans for the empty containers on delivery of the requested containers, for example. The supplier can also confirm planned deliveries directly in the Internet.

Business-to-Business

Offering your suppliers the Internet Application Component KANBAN provides you with the following advantages:

• The supplier always has an up-to-date overview of available stocks in the relevant control cycles and can see at a glance which product has to be delivered. The supplier can also see the delivery quantities in this same view in the Internet.

• Your suppliers can monitor your product stocks, create the pool for delivery and confirm delivery quantities round the clock and these functions are available worldwide.

• The structure of the Internet environment is simple and the layout can also be adjusted to suit the business requirements of the particular supplier. The supplier requires no previous R/3 knowledge.

The user responsible for monitoring and replenishing product stocks requires the following authorizations:

To start the Internet Application Component, the following preconditions must be fulfilled:

• A supplier (vendor) master record must have been created for the supplier in the customer’s R/3 System.

• The supplier requires an Internet user master record for the user type BUS1008 as well as a password in the customer’s R/3 System.

Using transaction SU05, you can create, change and delete passwords for Internet users. To specifically identify users, enter the object type KNA1 as well as the number of the SAP user master record or the customer number.

In the customer’s system, the data required for KANBAN with replenishment strategy external procurement must be maintained. This includes control cycles, corresponding replenishment strategies, info records, contracts / scheduling agreements and so on.

The Internet Application Component is a specially tailored supply source view of the kanban board for processing by the supplier.

The following differences exist between the R/3 standard transaction (kanban board: supply source view) and the Internet application component:

• In the Internet Application Component, the control cycles can be grouped online according to various criteria. The supplier can also create a delivery due list and s/he can also directly confirm this list. The supplier receives an overview of the successful or the unsuccessful postings as a result.

• In the Internet Application Component, the status of the kanbans can only be set to IN PROCESS. More statuses are available in the R/3 transaction.

You can enhance the data displayed from the control cycle for the Internet Application Component KANBAN. To do this, you must make slight changes to the transactions delivered in the standard system.

Four tables are issued in this Internet Application Component. In each table (program-internal), more fields are available than are displayed in the standard Internet version. To display the other fields from the table in the Internet Application Component, you must include the table field as well as the corresponding template in the steploop of the accompanying screen - as has been done for the fields already displayed.

In the R/3 System, the data exchange via the Internet is carried out using transactions and function modules. For KANBAN in the Internet, the following development objects are required:

Data output is carried out using the Internet Transaction Server (ITS). Here, the data is mixed with the output forms and made available for the Internet/intranet in FTML format.

The output forms are in the subdirectory IWWW of the directory TEMPLATES. The following forms are used:

SAPMMPKW_100.HTML

SAPMMPKW_110.HTML

SAPMMPKW_120.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1001.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1101.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1102.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1103.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1104.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1201.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1202.HTML

SAPMMPKW_1999.HTML

PKW1_D.HTRC

PKW1_E.HTRC

The numbers in the names of the forms correspond to the R/3 screen numbers.

The service name of this Internet Application Component is PKW1. You can find all the relevant data under this service name in the SAP@Web Studio.