Kanban: Automotive Revolution

Description

Kanban (看板 - the Japanese word for billboard) is a term for the visual cues that might be used in a lean, efficient assembly line in order to expedite and smooth workflow. These signals get the workers what they need, where they need it, when they need it. The setting for the game, Kanban, is an assembly line. The players are ambitious managers, trying to impress the board of directors, in order achieve as high a position as possible in the company, and secure their careers. With promotions come advantages at the factory, such as more space to store precious materials, and greater prestige to accelerate your ascent. You must strive to stand out and shine next to your peers, through solid management. You need to manage suppliers and supplies, improve automobile parts, innovate - anything to stay on the cutting edge, even if it means getting your hands greasy on the assembly line in order to boost production or bribing the factory tender to get you advantages. You must exercise wisdom in choosing which projects you should start, selecting only those that will give you the upper hand, and shunning those that will bog you down or cause the unthinkable - failure - which would diminish you in the eyes of the board. Over the course of the game, you will submit orders to suppliers to acquire raw materials necessary for factory objectives. You will persuade the board and the factory tender to help you develop and improve automobile parts. You will make shrewd use of the recycling facilities and the limited factory supplies in order to appropriate raw materials when the suppliers come up short. Because the factory must run at optimum efficiency, production doesn't wait for you, or for mistakes. If you want a seat on the board someday, you need to show that you can keep a complex machine running smoothly, efficiently, with everything happening just at the right time. Kanban is a pure eurogame, focused on economics and resource management, that puts you in the driver's seat of an entire production facility, racing to for the highest level of promotion.