Kanban System / What is Kanban?

Kanban System / What is Kanban?

Definition & Origin of Kanban

 - Kanban (signboard) is a Japanese manufacturing system in which the supply of components is regulated through the use of an instruction card sent along the production line invented by Taiichi Ohno in 1940, an industrial engineer at Toyota to improve manufacturing efficiency.

 - It aims to help you visualize your work, maximize efficiency, and improve continuously.

 - Its purpose is to ensure that you only produce what the customer is asking for and nothing more. It is a system of signals that is used through the value stream to pull product from customer demand back to raw materials.


Why we use Kanban?


1. Visually see work in progress

2. Increase efficiency and Reduce waste

3. Instantly understand impediments and take steps to remove them

4. Improve communication between yourself and your team

5. Empower teams to self-manage visual processes and workflows

6. Inspire team collaboration



Kanban Formula


1. Kanban = TRI / Bin Capacity

2. Total Required Inventory (TRI) = Weekly Part Usage X Lead-time X Number of locations for stock

Kanban Principles

1. Visualize Work

 - By creating a visual model of your work and process, you can observe the flow of work moving through the Kanban system. Making the work visible, along with visual indications of blockers, bottlenecks, and queues, instantly leads to increased communication and collaboration.

2. Focus on flow

 - Using work-in-process limits and team-driven policies, you can optimize your Kanban system to Improve the flow of work, Collect metrics to analyze flow, Get leading indicators of future problems

3. Limit work in process

 - By limiting how much unfinished work is in process, you can reduce the time it takes an item to travel through the Kanban system. You can also avoid problems caused by task switching and reduce the need to constantly reprioritize items.

4. Continuous Improvement

 - Once your Kanban system is in place, it becomes the cornerstone for a culture of continuous improvement. Teams measure their effectiveness by tracking flow, quality, throughput, lead times, and more.


Kanban Board Model - Kanban Flow


1. TODO: This column lists the tasks that are not yet started

2. DOING: Consists of the tasks list that are in progress.

3. DONE: Consists of the tasks list that has been completed.

Kanban Board Model



Best Practices For Kanban Method

1. Visualize the flow of work 

2. Make Process Policies Explicit 

3. Implement Feedback Loops 

4. Using the scientific method for improvement 

5. Manage flow 

6. Limit work in process(WIP)


Types of Kanban

1. Raw Material Kanban- Tells supplier when to send how much of a particular item to a particular place.


2. In-process Kanban- Determines the amount of WIP (Work In Process) that can be kept between any two operations in a process.

3. Finished goods Kanban- Determines the amount of a product to be kept on hand at any given time. Removal of material from the finished goods Kanban acts as a signal for more of that product to be manufactured.

Types of Kanban


Kanban vs. Scrum

1. Kanban best for projects with widely varying priorities but Scrum best for teams with stable priorities that may not change as much over time. 

2. Kanban not having pre-defined roles for a team but Scrum has a pre-defined role for each team member. 

3. Kanban is not based on duration. This thing is measured regarding cycle times but Scrum is duration based varies 2 weeks to 1 month. 

4. Kanban recommends graphs to get an overview of the team's progress over time but Scrum recommends the collection of time measurements made during sprints. 

5. Kanban relies on time-boxing and forecasts but Scrum no longer asks for a commitment from teams. 

6. Commitment not necessary it is optional for teams in Kanban but in Scrum teams are required to commit a specific amount of work.


Software’s used for Kanban

 - Kanban software takes the basic visual approach of a Kanban board and cards and digitizes it, so now workflow can be seen by the whole team. 

 - It makes organization easier and helps project managers and teams manage the workflow better. Therefore, the software fulfills the core practice to always be improving. Cutting waste and automating some aspects of the process through software features allows teams to focus on their activities.

 - Some software's are

1. TRELLO 

2. KANBANIZ

3. MONDAY.COM 

4. JIRA



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