Supermarket (pull system)

A supermarket is a location holding a predetermined standard inventory that supplies downstream processes. It is normally placed near the supplying process so that process can see customer usage and requirements. Each item has a fixed location from which a material handler withdraws the exact amounts needed downstream, and the removal triggers a signal to make more, such as a kanban card or an empty bin, which the handler carries back to the supplying process.

Source checked2/2 values · 2026-10-25System

Specification

1 source

Kind	system
Origin	Toyota (first installed 1953 in Toyota City)

Study notes

Toyota installed its first supermarket in 1953 in the machine shop of its main plant in Toyota City (Ohno 1988, p. 27).
Taiichi Ohno took the idea from photographs of American supermarkets showing goods arrayed on shelves by specific location for withdrawal by customers (Ohno and Mito 1988, p. 16).
Supermarkets are ordinarily located near the supplying process so that process can see customer usage and requirements.
The make-more signal can be a kanban card or an empty bin.
The document cross-references Fill-Up System, Kanban, Material Handling and Pull Production; none of these has a matching reference id.