A manager wants to determine the number of kanbans to use in a new process for a part. The process will have a usage rate of 75 pieces of the part per hour. Because the process is new, the manager has assigned a safety factor of 1.0. Each container holds 46 pieces and a kanban will take an average of 75 minutes to complete a cycle.

A a. How many kanbans should be used? (Round up the final answer to the next whole number.)

b. As the system improves, will more or fewer kanbans be required?