Kanban Fundamentals

The kanban replenishment model is the operational core of the Arda platform. It provides a pull-based mechanism for triggering supply replenishment: consumption of materials generates a demand signal, which drives procurement, which closes the loop when goods are received and shelved.

The Replenishment Loop

The loop is a relay across five operational roles. Each role has a defined entry point, action, and handoff.

1. Setup (Inventory Manager): Creates items, prints cards, laminates them, and places them at reorder points on the shelf. Prints shelf labels and breadcrumbs for location guidance. Card state: AVAILABLE.

2. Consumption and Trigger (Shop Floor Worker): Uses supplies until the front bin empties. Picks up the visible kanban card. Scans it at a workstation or drops it in the “To Order” bin. Card state: REQUESTED.

3. Order Processing (Purchasing Manager): Reviews the order queue, grouped by supplier. Places orders via supplier portals, email/PO, phone, or RFQ. Advances card states. Card state: INPROCESS.

4. Receipt (Receiving Clerk): Receives the delivery at the dock. Marks items received in the system. Returns physical cards to their shelf positions using breadcrumbs for location guidance. Card state: FULFILLED / SHELVED.

5. Loop Closed: The card is back at the reorder point, the item is restocked, and the system is ready for the next cycle.

Domain Personas

Six personas represent the distinct users of the Arda platform. Five participate directly in the kanban replenishment loop. The sixth governs the business case.

Persona	Role in the Loop
Inventory Manager (Irene)	Owns the loop end to end: item setup, card creation, printing, floor walks, cultural enforcement, and receiving.
Shop Floor Worker (Sam)	Triggers the loop by consuming supplies and scanning or dropping the kanban card at the reorder point.
Purchasing Manager (David)	Executes the loop by placing orders with suppliers and advancing card states through the procurement lifecycle.
Receiving Clerk (Keisha)	Closes the loop by receiving deliveries, marking cards fulfilled, and returning cards to their shelf positions.
Account Admin (Alan)	Configures the platform, onboards users and inventory areas, stewards reference data quality — the infrastructure that makes the loop possible.
Business Principal (Owen)	Owns the business case for Arda. Decides what to bring under kanban management, funds the investment, and is accountable for ROI.

Loop Failure Modes

The loop breaks in three predictable places:

1. The worker does not scan the card (no demand signal generated)
2. The card is missing or damaged (signal cannot be generated)
3. The delivery is received but not logged in the system (loop does not close)

All operational personas have responsibilities that address these failure modes. The Inventory Manager performs floor walks to detect missing cards. The Receiving Clerk is responsible for logging receipts immediately on delivery. The system supports card reprinting and damage reporting to address physical card issues.

Relationship to the Information Model

The kanban replenishment loop maps directly to entities in the information model:

• The physical kanban card is represented by the KanbanCard entity, which tracks both the kanban state and the print state.
• The route between the producer and consumer is represented by the Loop entity.
• The shelf location of a card maps to the Location entity within a Facility.
• The demand signal from a PoLine to a KanbanCard represents the procurement association.

See Kanban Cards for the formal entity definition.