Kanban is a system to control the logistical chain from a production point of view, and is an inventory control system.
Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, as a system to improve and maintain a high level of production. Kanban is one method to achieve JIT. 

Kanban became an effective tool to support running a production system as a whole, and an excellent way to promote improvement.

Problem areas are highlighted by reducing the number of kanban in circulation. One of the main benefits of kanban is to establish an upper limit to the work in progress inventory thereby avoiding overloading the manufacturing system.  Trout Tool Co uses the Kanban methodology to ensure the correct volume of product is available to our clients at exactly the right time, not too soon and certainly never too late!