What is Kanban methodology?
Overview of Kanban
‘Kanban’ also called ‘Kamban’ is a Japanese term meaning a billboard or a visual board that indicates the available capacity to work. It is a scheduling system that helps the business to assign what to produce when to produce and how much to produce. Kanban was originally developed by Toyota in the 1940s, as a simple planning system to optimally manage and control work and inventory at every stage of production.
What is Kanban methodology?
Kanban methodology is a workflow management method that helps businesses to assign, manage and improve operations. It helps companies to visualize their work, maximize their efficiency, and improve continuously. It is a visual system that helps to identify potential bottlenecks in the business operations and fix them so that the workflow is optimal and cost-effective.
How does Kanban methodology work?
Kanban methodology depends on the Kanban board. Kanban board is a tool that helps to visualize the entire project and manage its workflow. The Kanban board helps an individual to understand what’s happening in the project, the tasks completed, and future tasks.
What are the fundamentals of Kanban methodology?
Kanban methodology is more than just using a board to visualize the workflow and manage operations. It is designed in such a way that it helps to reduce operational bottlenecks, improve efficiency, increase quality and boost output. Kanban is based on 4 principles and 6 core practices.
The 4 principles of Kanban methodology are:
1. Start with what you are doing now. Focus on the task and projects of immediate importance or tasks which you are already supposed to do.
2. Pursue incremental and evolutionary changes. Avoid implementing radical changes.
3. Keep the same roles and responsibilities. Avoid any organizational changes.
4. Encourage leadership at all levels.
The 6 core practices of Kanban methodology are:
1. Visualize the workflow. It is essential to use a physical or virtual board to visualize the workflow and the tasks of a project.
2. Limit work in progress (WIP). Set a limit on the number of tasks that are allowed to be worked on at each stage of the process.
3. Actively manage the workflow. Manage and monitor the processes to identify bottlenecks and fix them accordingly to improve efficiency.
4. Create process guidelines. Communicate and establish clear guidelines of how work should be done and when it is considered finished. The process should be clearly defined, established and communicated so that everyone is familiar and make decisions accordingly.
5. Feedback loops. Use tools and processes to promote early continuous feedback.
6. Evolve and improve. Implement small changes gradually to adapt and improve gradually to enhance your workflow and operational processes.
How is Kanban methodology useful for your business?
Kanban methodology has the following benefits:
1. Flexibility. Kanban doesn’t dictate the order of work, it just visualizes how much work is done and how much work is left. This helps in the easy reshuffling of work as priorities change.
2. Fewer bottlenecks. Kanban helps to identify and reduce operational bottlenecks.
3. Increased efficiency, improved output, increased delivery speed and smoother workflow.
4. Improved inventory management and predictability.
5. Faster adoption to change.
6. Increased visibility and understanding of the workflow.
7. Enhanced customer satisfaction.
In a nutshell
Kanban methodology is more than a visual board tool. It is a formalized method to the flow approach and offers organizations to improve their processes and operations without having to undergo drastic changes. It is the simplest method to implement that requires no sudden structural changes and helps to continuously and gradually analyze and improve workflow.
