Kanban EV
Kanban EV Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
Score the most Production Points (PP) by the end of the game, earned from assembling and testing cars, upgrading designs, certifications, factory and performance goals, and your standing on the department training tracks.
Key Concepts
- Shifts are your actions per turn, set by your chosen workstation (usually 2–3, or 1–2 in Administration). You may spend Banked Shifts to work more, up to 4 total per day.
- Departments: Design, Logistics, Assembly, R&D, and Administration. Each has a training track; crossing its arrow makes you certified (unlocking benefits), and reaching the end makes you an Expert.
- Books let you train extra (one track step per book, no shift cost). Parts Vouchers substitute for a needed car part. Speech tokens are spent at Meetings; you gain Generic Speech tokens that convert into your own.
- Starting PP is 15 (you can lose PP to penalties, so you don't begin at 0).
Setup (overview)
Place the board and the Sandra reference tile (red-stripe side). Seed Recycling with 3 random part types; stock supplies of parts, vouchers, and books. Place two Factory Goals in each of three departments with Generic Speech tokens on them. Set up R&D (Car Part Value markers, Pace Car, Test track overlay by player count), Design (random tiles in the display, three stacks of 9), Assembly (cars on each model's line), Logistics (Demand tiles, Kanban deck, initial warehouse parts), and Administration (4 Performance Goals face up, a random Final Goal, Week marker, Sandra at her desk). Shuffle Award tiles into each department. Each player takes a board, discs, worker, certification/banked-shift markers, locks, and speech tokens.
New Employee Orientation: in turn, place certification markers on the leftmost track section (gaining any depicted benefits); the marker order sets first-round turn order. Then each player takes 1 car part and 1 design.
Game Structure
The game is a series of days, each with two phases, until the end-game is triggered.
1. Department Selection Phase
In turn order, each player moves their worker to an empty workstation in a department. You must pick a different department than the one you're in (company policy forbids two consecutive days in the same department). Your workstation choice sets how many Shifts you get and your priority next day. Sandra also selects, moving top-to-bottom through the departments.
2. Work Phase
In workstation order (top to bottom), each player spends their Shifts on tasks in their department (and may spend Banked Shifts, max 4 total). Every department also offers training (one track step per Shift) and Homework (spend books to train, free of Shifts). When done, lay your worker down. When Sandra acts, she evaluates and performs a departmental task (see below).
After all have worked, check for a Meeting or the end of the week, then begin the next day.
Departments and Tasks
Design — Select a Design: spend 1 Shift per design taken from the 8 rightmost display spaces onto your board (you need designs for R&D). Taking from the rightmost four spaces grants a bonus (Banked Shift or Book). Certified players can Select an Advanced Design from the stacks and store an extra design.
Logistics — Issue Kanban Order: gain a Banked Shift, place a Kanban card so 4 symbols are on one side of the line, add matching parts to those warehouses, then cycle the card and draw a new one. Collect Car Parts: spend 1 Shift to take any number of parts from one warehouse (needing board space). Certified players can Receive Parts Voucher and store an extra part.
Assembly — Provide a Needed Part: move a part (or spend a Voucher) onto an empty Assembly space for a model; the part must differ from those already there, and any upgraded parts must be provided before non-upgraded ones. This moves that model's lead car one step down the conveyor (displacing others), and a new car enters. When a car rolls off the end onto the Test track, gain 1–2 PP and, if it matches a Demand tile, a Speech token. Recycling lets you freely swap a stored part for one of the three in the recycling pool.
R&D — Claim Cars: with a matching design on your board and an empty garage, return the design to the stack and spend Shifts (1/2/2/3 by the car's position behind the Pace Car) to take cars into your garages, gaining garage bonuses; then advance the Pace Car (which may trigger a Meeting). Upgrade a Design: place a matching part on a model's Upgrade space, gain its benefit, raise that part's value on the Upgrade Value track, flip the design to its Upgraded side, and earn 2 PP. An Upgraded design with a matching car in your garage becomes a Tested Design. Certification unlocks a one-time Double-Upgrade.
Administration — no unique task, but you may also work in one other department, splitting Shifts and books between the two. Sandra sits here; her departmental task here is End-of-Week Scoring.
Sandra, the Factory Manager
Sandra selects and works like a player, moving top-to-bottom through departments. From day 2, on her turn she evaluates the player(s) with the least training in her department: anyone meeting the penalty criteria (e.g. 2 or fewer cars in garages in Assembly) loses 1 PP, plus 1 PP for each Banked Shift they have below 5. She then performs a fixed departmental task (e.g. advance the Pace Car in R&D, clear Assembly spaces, thin warehouses in Logistics, cycle designs in Design, or run End-of-Week Scoring in Administration).
Factory Goals, Meetings, and Weeks
- Factory Goals: meeting a goal's requirement (claiming cars, upgrading designs, or certifications) immediately gives you one of its Speech tokens; when a goal's tokens run out, it's removed.
- End-of-Week Scoring (when Sandra does her Admin task): for each car in your garages, gain 1 PP per upgrade made to that model (by anyone) and 1 PP per Tested Design you have of that model. Then advance the Week marker.
- Meetings (triggered when the Pace Car passes a striped space): players take turns in certification-track order, each speaking—playing one Performance Goal (mandatory once per Meeting) and/or placing a Speech token on a goal's highest empty speech icon to score PP (the icon's multiplier caps how many times you score it). Meetings end when everyone passes consecutively; then refresh the Performance Goals and hands.
End of the Game
The Production Cycle marker (advanced at Meetings) and the Week marker track the end. When one is on at least space 2 and the other on at least space 3, the end is triggered: finish the day (including any End-of-Week Scoring and/or Meeting), then do Final Scoring.
Final scoring adds PP for your relative position on each department's training track, your Tested Designs, cars in garages, the Final Goal, and other end-game assets. The player with the most PP wins.
Variants
The rulebook offers a Nice Sandra variant (she rewards instead of penalizing, starting at 0 PP), The Planner and Delayed Tuning (garage-tile timing), and Expert Tuning (harder garage tiles), which may be mixed. A solo game (by David Turczi) is included.