In Lean Six Sigma the word Supermarket is used to describe a central location for a group of products often held in Kanbans that are collected by a customer.
The obvious analogy is a retail Supermarket that has a range of food, electrical or clothing products held in one large store so customers do not need to visit many different locations. A constant product flow is something you might get in the chemical industry where they use pipes.
Although we aim to make things flow, in most industries constant flow is not possible; we need supermarkets. Basically a supermarket is a store; parts in the supermarket are there because supply cannot be linked directly to demand.
Supermarkets are a group of centrally located Kanbans;
the central location is to allow ‘customers’ the time saving benefit of one stop shopping and supplier consolidation In Lean thinking, supermarkets are a necessary evil;
they should be located as close as possible to the customer(s) and not confused with a buffer stock that may be held within the production chain.