Rhythmic decline

According to a fixed, frequent pace, pass production instructions to work areas and remove completed products from work areas. This workflow can be used to link material flows to information flows. 

In the illustration below, the material handler covers the entire route every twenty minutes. First, he retrieves production instructions (production kanban) from a leveling box. Then he delivers the kanban to a production process, where they are the starting signal to produce goods. 

An example of rhythmic decline in a factory environment:

The material handler removes completed goods from the production process and takes them to the supermarket. There the handler retrieves production canban from the collection box, takes them to the leveling box, puts them in, and retrieves the next set of production canban from the appropriate column in the box, then the cycle repeats. Rhythmic removal prevents overproduction and alerts managers quickly -- in this case, within 20 minutes -- if production problems occur.