Definition
The process of daily control of inventory at site focuses on daily servicing of clients and meeting weekly financial targets for inventory and addresses material system deviations.
In detail
Inventory Management at Gemba (IMAG) is the process of controlling inventory daily at the production Gemba, focusing on serving customers daily and meeting weekly inventory financial targets, and conducting problem solving on material system deviations. It addresses whether inventory levels can track the target every day, finds root causes of excess against design/ideal inventory, and handles them by action category; it is closely related to the Kanban System, which is a pull-based replenishment tool. IMAG typically outputs daily inventory reports, deviation analyses, and Countermeasures.
Example in practice
When a company faces inaccurate inventory and frequent material shortages, it implements IMAG. For example, an auto parts plant conducts a daily Kanban audit (14 checks), compares Gemba inventory against designed inventory, finds that a certain part number consistently exceeds target, and assigns an owner by action category to address it. Through daily management, inventory tracks the weekly financial target, material shortage occurrences decrease, and customer delivery becomes more reliable.