If you think Kanban is a bunch of clever people looking at a whiteboard with stickers, then read on..
In persuit of efficiency gains I recently got the chance to join ProKanban.org applying professional Kanban course and take a dive deeper into the world of flow efficiency.
Some history first; Kanban is an Agile framework used by many industries and just after my course the State of Agile survey was released with this shocker; within agile organisations kanban adaption accelerated from 7 to 51% in 12 months.
For those that associate Kanban with software only you might be suprised that the first Kanban system was developed by Taiichi Ohno(Industrial Engineer and Businessman) for Toyota automotive in Japan in the 1940's (note blog title image the first kanban). It was created as a simple planning system, to optimise and manage work and inventory at every stage of production. The word kanban is Japanese and roughly translated means “visual signal.”
Kanban is a pull system to prevent team overburden and increase workflow efficiency. Teams pull work as they finish what they started while keeping their focus on the highest priorities. Kanban pull systems when designed and executed well can significantly improve productivity and decrease delivery times.
Suprisingly the worlds no1 choice for agile software management, Jira doesnt support this but a good scrum master can facilitate pull within the team and the benefits are strong. In order for a pull system to work well the team should consider to reduce the number of working items on the board to be approximately the sum of the total members of the team.
Kanban works well because its a a visual system that is based on the principle of limiting work in progress (WIP) and managing Flow.
To understand what Flow is, try this excellent TEDx talk by Niklas Modig titled “The Efficiency Paradox” (18:48)
I mentioned Kanban is a pull-based system, meaning that work is only pulled into the system when capacity becomes available. This helps to prevent overproduction and ensures that work is completed at a sustainable pace.
Actively Managing Items in a Workflow
Teams generally manage the efficiency of flow by looking daily at :
- Controlling Work In Progress
- Avoiding work items piling up in any part of the workflow.
- Ensuring work items do not age unnecessarily, using the SLE as a reference.
- Unblocking blocked work.
Unlike scrum there is no "master" to facilitate the process or bring awareness to the elements not being adhered to , this is all down to the team or one keen member in the team.
Operational efficiency - flow vs resource efficiency
We might want to understand how much work our team can achieve within a given time frame, or where the bottle necks are. Charts like cumulative flow help with just that. Analysis of the the diagram will tell you what areas need your focus.
Kanban has become popular in recent years, thanks to its flexibility, scalability, and focus on continuous improvement. By visualizing workflows, limiting work in progress, managing flow, and promoting continuous improvement, Kanban has helped organizations to optimize their processes and improve their overall efficiency. If you are looking to streamline your workflows and improve your project management practices, then Kanban may be worth exploring.
Understanding and applying Kanban can improve business performance. It provides a logical framework for analyzing and improving the performance of the "system". Leading to better quality, faster delivery times, and ultimately, higher profits.
If you feel your teams or organisation suffer from bottlenecks, your workforce feel too busy, you need to cut down time to market, or raise quality and reduce defects, create better transparancy and encourage team work then its time to take a look beyond those whiteboards and stickys stock photos.
For further reading and evidence of why Kanban is on a significant rise, check out the case studys of these organisations.
- Nike's use of Kanban.
https://leansixsigmabelgium.com/blog/lean-innovation-nike/ - Jaguar's use of Kanban to improve efficiency.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jaguar-land-rover-hail-successful-use-kanban-boards-john/ - Pixar's use of Kanban to 'manufacture' animation.
https://availagility.co.uk/2015/01/30/a-kanban-thinking-pixar-pitch/ - NextPhase Medical Devices' Kanban-based warehousing.
https://kanbantool.com/kanban-guide/kanban-in-manufacturing - Spotify's Kanban project planning.
https://www.infoq.com/articles/kanban-operations-spotify/ - Zara's fashion Kanban workflow.
https://paperap.com/paper-on-zara-it-for-fast-fashion/
About the author : Andy Smith is a senior Product Owner (CSPO) senior Scrum Master (CSM) and Agile Coach, contracted by TheVIT AS in Oslo, Norway. Andy & TheVIT are building full stack Agile Business Intelligence teams and services with data centralisation and have built one of the first Business Intelligence As A Service through Intelligent Solutions.
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