Kanban Boards

10 Key excerpts on "Kanban Boards"

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  eBook - ePub

  Improve

  The Next Generation of Continuous Improvement for Knowledge Work

  • George Ellis(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Butterworth-Heinemann

    (Publisher)

  Forecasting workload is complex because there are always unknowns. Work sometimes comes in bunches, something we can call uneven flow; also, domain issues can be unpredictable—a clause in a contract or a detail in an electrical schematic can seem simple at first but turn out to be quite complex. In these cases, experts must willingly shoulder the load to estimate as well as possible, track actual against commitments, and learn to be better the next time. Over months and years, expertise will grow and estimates will steadily improve. Don’t be satisfied with stock phrases like “it depends” or “we don’t know.” Of course it depends. Of course we don’t know with certainty. That's why knowledge work relies so heavily on experts.

  21.5 Kanban Task Management

  Kanban is a bit like the Chinese board game Go—a few moments to learn, a lifetime to master [3] .

  A Kanban board is a visual way to perform Just-In-Time Rationalization with irregular tasks. It helps teams deal with uneven flow of tasks and creates transparency so internal customers can see what the team is working on. The Kanban board is based on Kanban inventory management, which was derived by Taiichi Ohno and others in Toyota from American supermarkets in the 1950s [4] . Kanban Task Management was applied to knowledge work on a large scale by David Anderson, who helped develop Agile Software Management [5] . The concept can be demonstrated with an ordinary lunch buffet at a pizza restaurant, as shown in Fig. 21.6 . When a server (1) sees a type of pizza is running low, he or she (2) signals a request to the kitchen for more pepperoni pizzas. The kitchen (3) starts a new pizza and, a few minutes later, (4) delivers it to the buffet table.

  Fig. 21.6 A pizza buffet is a pull system with downstream flow driven by upstream signals.

  The key lean principle in Fig. 21.6 is to see how the upstream signals trigger the downstream flow. These signals help the restaurant respond at just the right rate when, for whatever reason, pepperoni slices are taken at half the rate one day compared to the next. They are the key to the Kanban board [6] of Fig. 21.7 . This is a physical board with sticky notes (or it's virtual equivalent) that flow from left to right. Each note represents one task. The backlog of tasks is unlimited; any customer to the process can add work to the backlog, but there's no commitment on when the backlogged work will start—implying, of course, that entering a task in the backlog gives no indication of when, or even if, the task will be worked on.

  Fig. 21.7

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  eBook - ePub

  Card-Based Control Systems for a Lean Work Design

  The Fundamentals of Kanban, ConWIP, POLCA, and COBACABANA

  • Matthias Thurer, Mark Stevenson, Charles Protzman(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Productivity Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 5

  The Inventory Control Problem: Kanban Systems

  Highlights

  • We outline the six rules of kanban systems.
  • We outline the difference between a work-in-process kanban system and a production kanban system.
  • We outline the implications for the use of kanban to control the flow of independent product/service flows through a set of resources (i.e. shop floor control).
  • We discuss the applicability of kanban systems.

  The previous four chapters outlined how we conceptualize a production/service system, what a card-based system is, and what all card-based systems discussed in this book have in common. We also outlined four criteria that determine different control problems. This and the following chapters will now discuss each of the card-based control solutions in the light of these criteria—each suitable for a different control problem. We will start in this chapter with kanban systems.

  Kanban

  A visual signal, kanban literally means to watch over a board for a period; it is like a sign outside a business, but with a soul (Protzman et al. 2010). It is typically a sheet of paper/plastic/metal—a physical card (see Figure 5.1 for some examples). This is why the kanban system is called a card-based system—in fact, it is the original card-based system. The card may be integrated into a container or material handling device. Still, this container should also be imagined as a container with a kanban attached to it and not as a kanban

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  eBook - ePub

  Agile Practices for Waterfall Projects

  Shifting Processes for Competitive Advantage

  • Barbee Davis(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • J. Ross Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Organizations should create the products that provide value for the customer when they request it. The alternative would be to create things as a speculative endeavor, hoping that what you create is something they would want to purchase. The word “pull” comes from the use of the tool kanban. As applied to software development, or in non-IT projects, the idea of “pull” is that the customer decides the features that need to be implemented as a part of this project based on what they desire most (brings the most business value), and what they are willing to pay for (or can afford to create) at this point in time. The project team is there to provide what the product owner requests in a prioritized order. Kanban Kanban is a tool used in Lean manufacturing. It comes from Toyota’s production line practices, and is an actual card that is used to facilitate a “pull” production control system that can be done in a self-directed way by the workers involved. When this idea is moved to the software development arena, it can be translated as sticky notes on a wall chart that show the team when to “pull” and complete additional tasks (particularly if the task is dependent on another team member’s task, which must be completed first). You may hear this referred to as “Software Kanban.” There are three basic ideas (philosophies) behind kanban: Visualize what you do today (workflow). Limit the amount of work in progress (WIP). Enhance flow. In addition, here are the nine properties of kanban in a manufacturing environment. It is easy to see where the information radiators of many other agile methodologies have used these positive ideas to enhance both software development and non-IT projects. Kanban. A kanban card is a physical card that you move from location to location as a communication signal to others on the project regarding what needs to be done or has been done. The word comes from the Japanese “kanban” or “kamban,” which means signboard, billboard, or shop sign

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  eBook - ePub

  Kanban Change Leadership

  Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement

  • Klaus Leopold, Siegfried Kaltenecker(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Figure 3.1 shows a sample workflow of analysis, development, and testing represented using a visual board. As with most things in Kanban, there is no recommended layout for the board. We have seen boards visualizing the workflow in spiral form and boards using a motorway as a metaphor—anything that expresses the process as sensibly and clearly as possible is permissible. Many teams explicitly take note of the completion criteria (“definition of done”) for each step so that all team members share the same understanding of when the work has been finished.

   

  Figure 3.1

  Example representation of a Kanban board.

  Irrespective of which form is chosen, the board should always have two specific characteristics:

  1. The input queue on the far left of the board is where the work item types that should be completed first are listed. These items are the result of the conversations in the so-called queue replenishment meeting, which will be discussed at greater length in Chapter 6 .
  2. The point of handover in the final column on the right-hand side of the board—in this example entitled “Ready for release”—is the point at which the work leaves the kanban system (often simply indicating completion with the word “done”). A ticket landing in this column doesn’t necessarily mean that a product is complete. In many cases, it simply signals that the next stage in the organizational value chain—the stage that borders with that section—can take over the work on the next part of the product.

  MISUNDERSTANDINGS

  Kanban and the waterfall

  Kanban is a pull system. This means that “one piece of work” out of the whole group of work items is singled out, worked on, and then indicated as being ready for the next step in the process. This is sometimes falsely compared with the waterfall method in software development. This is a traditional way of doing things whereby all items that have been defined in advance for a particular step in the process must always be completed. Thereafter, the finished work items are passed on to the next step all together. However, this is precisely what Kanban does not

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  eBook - ePub

  Kanban Made Simple

  Demystifying and Applying Toyota's Legendary Manufacturing Process

  • John M. GROSS, Kenneth R. MCINNIS(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • AMACOM

    (Publisher)

  One other item to consider when setting up your flow lanes is to be sensitive to the number of rows from which product can be pulled. You may defeat the stock rotation benefit if you allow too many choices, as for example if the operators withdraw the containers closest to their operation, leaving the material staged further away to age. There is no stock answer for this, but use common sense and talk with your operators.

  Kanban Boards

  The Kanban Boards are a variation on the kanban cards. Instead of the cards, the board simply utilizes magnets, plastic chips, colored washers, etc. as the signal. The objects represent the items in inventory. However, instead of chasing cards around the building, you are moving the objects around on a board. The movement of the objects corresponds to the production and consumption of full containers of product. The process works like this:

  • As a container of product is completed and moved into inventory, an object gets moved into the inventory section of the board.
  • When the container is consumed or moved to a staging area for consumption, then an object gets moved into the awaiting production section of the board.

  To determine what gets produced next, you look at the board and follow the rules.

  Figure 5-9 graphically shows an example of the movement of objects on a kanban board. Notice how only the bottom of the board contains the red, yellow, and green signals? This allows for only one scheduling signal—even though the number of colored cells in the top and bottom sections is equal. Figure 5-10 shows a picture of a kanban board that uses magnetic pieces for scheduling signals.

  The pieces used to the show board status and product movement are not limited to magnets. In fact, Kanban Boards using chips, washers, etc. can actually simplify movements on the board. The simplification comes from collapsing the “awaiting production” area of the board, as shown in Figure 5-11 .

  Kanban Boards work best when two conditions exist in the relationship of inventory storage and the production process:

  1. The board can be positioned in the path of the flow of all the material to the customer (similar to the card system)
  2. The board can be positioned so that the production process can see it and follow the visual signals

  Figure 5-9. Kanban board set-up and operation.

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  eBook - PDF

  Lean Manufacturing

  Business Bottom-Line Based

  • John X. Wang(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  185 10 Kanban: Align Manufacturing Flow with Demand Pull This chapter will explain what a Kanban system is, how it works, and how it can be implemented. The theory will then be applied to a Lean manufacturing cell to illustrate the implementation. This chapter also presents the modeling of a Kanban manufacturing and production system through the use of simula-tion. A model is constructed for a discrete, noncontinuous simulation of a mul-tistage, dual-card Kanban production system. The performance of the model is monitored by tracking work in process (WIP), orders completed, and the pro-duction throughput in the just-in-time (JIT)/Kanban production environment. Simulation helps to select the right Kanban technique to implement in a given manufacturing process. Simulation techniques also provide valuable information for anticipating production capabilities of a Kanban system before actual implementation. This can be a helpful tool for engineers, man-agers, and executives working with an existing Kanban system or making plans for the implementation of one. 10.1 Kanban-Based Systems Kanban is a Japanese term meaning “signal.” The term is used worldwide today to denote a form of replenishment signal used to transmit informa-tion generally regarding the movement or production of products. In general context, it refers to a signal of some kind. Thus, in the manufacturing envi-ronment, Kanbans are signals used to replenish the inventory of items used repetitively within a facility. The Kanban system is based on a customer of a part pulling the part from the supplier of that part. The customer of the part can be an actual consumer of a finished product (external) or the production personnel at the succeeding station in a manufacturing facility (internal). Likewise, the supplier could be the person at the preceding station in a man-ufacturing facility. The premise of a Kanban system is that material will not be produced or moved until a customer sends the signal to do so.

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  eBook - ePub

  Agile Methodologies In-Depth

  Delivering Proven Agile, SCRUM and Kanban Practices for High-Quality Business Demands (English Edition)

  • Sudipta Malakar(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • BPB Publications

    (Publisher)

  Check customer issues and try to deliver customer-centric solutions to suffice customer purpose based on market conditions using KANBAN. Control WIP limits and remove the ageing bucket of long pending tickets. Maintain quick response to customer issues. Reduce the cost of delay, transaction, waste/extra resources etc. as it is another value addition of KANBAN.

  Focus on change management process, change control board (CCB), and change advisory board (CAB) to manage the effective inflow and outflow rate of the volume of tickets to our team working in project.

  1.24 Ten Things About Kanban

  Let's look at some key pointers on Kanban:

  • Every Kanban system is unique
  • Kanban is about the focus and flow
  • Kanban is about evolutionary change, not revolutionary
  • Kanban is committed to agility
  • Kanban is grounded in reality
  • Kanban is a living system
  • Kanban is a risk management method
  • Kanban balances demand and capacity
  • Kanban isn't only for software development or IT
  • Kanban works at scale

  Check the full organizational ecosystem rather than looking into local optimization while implementing KANBAN.

  1.25 Six Forms of Proto Kanban

  Proto-KANBAN is a pre-cursor where a visual board exists but a pull system and a service delivery workflow are still emerging. Six forms have been observed:

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  eBook - ePub

  Implementing Lean

  Converting Waste to Profit

  • Charles Protzman, Fred Whiton, Joyce Kerpchar(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Productivity Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 2 Kanbans

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003185802-2

  Kanban is like the old time milkman. Mom didn't give the milkman a schedule. Mom didn't use the material requirement planning system (MRP). She simply put the empties on the front steps and the milkman replenished them. That is the essence of a pull system.

  Ernie Smith

  Lean Event Facilitator in the Lean Enterprise Forum at the University of Tennessee

  Kanban literally means “watch over a board for a period”; it is like a sign outside a business, but with a soul. Kanbans facilitate inventory management by providing a sign or signal for replenishment. According to Taiichi Ohno, the person credited with developing just in time (JIT), Kanban is a means through which JIT is achieved.1 The purpose of a Kanban system (see Figure 2.1a ) is to control the flow of material by providing inventory as a buffer to synchronize two disconnected processes. Kanban is a visual management tool, see Figure 2.1b , to help prevent overproduction, the number one waste, and for detecting delays in the process or when processes are producing ahead of schedule (a pacemaker to prevent overproduction—i.e., produce only what is ordered, when ordered, and quantity ordered). There are additional benefits of Kanban to include increased flexibility to meet customer demand, reduction in scheduling by production control and manufacturing, and competitive advantage by sequencing shipments to customers to ensure they receive what they want, when they want it, and in the order they want it.

  Figure 2.1

  (a) Conceptual Kanban system and (b) Kanban squares outlined on the floor—Visual management vs. cards.

  Kanbans are inventory, thus we must constantly work to minimize the number of materials. A Kanban trigger or signal can be an empty space, an empty bin, a piece of paper, an electronic signal (lights, electronic data interchange (EDI ), or an icon (e.g., rolling golf balls down a tube). A Kanban is a signal designed to trigger an event. The term Kanban can initially be very confusing because the term Kanban itself is used in several ways. It is not only used to describe the overall replenishment system but also the individual bins or cards used within the system (see Figure 2.2

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  eBook - PDF

  The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile

  Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach

  • Charles G. Cobb(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  ◾ Only problems that cannot be resolved in that stage are routed on to a second or third level of support for further resolution depending on the complexity and difficulty of the problem. In this situation, the size of the screening staff would typically be much larger than the more sophisticated problem resolution staff to optimize the flow and efficiency of the overall process. Each stage has a WIP limitation based on the capacity of the resource capacity in that stage and the flow through the process will be determined by which stage in the process is more limiting on the overall flow. Kanban Boards Kanban Boards are tools that are used to visually show the flow of items through a Kanban process. For example, Scrum and other Agile processes use Kanban Boards to manage the flow of items within a sprint. The Kanban board can be as simple as a whiteboard with stickies on it or 3 × 5 cards that are manually moved around the board to show progress through the flow. Kanban Boards can also be implemented using an automated online tool to track progress, as shown in Figure 6.6. Level 2 Problem Resolution Customer Problems Level 1 Screening FIGURE 6.5 Levels of support in a customer service response system T I M E - B O X I N G , K A N B A N , A N D T H E O R Y O F C O N S T R A I N T S 119 THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS All Agile processes (especially Kanban) emphasize optimizing the flow through the entire process— bottlenecks can develop in each stage of the process, and a key concept that is extremely useful for optimizing the overall flow is the Theory of Constraints that was originally published by Eliyahu Goldratt in his book The Goal in 1984. 6 It involves five steps that are repeated over and over until you finally optimize the flow through the process: 1. Identify: The first step is to identify the stage or portion of the process that is the most critical constraint or bottleneck.

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  No longer available |Learn more

  Jira 8 Essentials

  Effective issue management and project tracking with the latest Jira features, 5th Edition

  • Patrick Li(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Packt Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Done column from the board (still in the system). The first option is good for teams using Kanban for general task management, and the option to use releases fits better with software development where versions can be released.

  Let's look at an example of the Kanban board , as shown in the following screenshot, in which we can clearly see that we have problems in both the

  In Development

  and

  In Testing

  phases of our process. In Development is highlighted in red, meaning that we have enough work there, which is a sign of a bottleneck. In Testing is highlighted in yellow, which means that we do not have enough work, which is a sign of efficiency:

  With this, the board is able to visually tell us where we are having problems, which allows us to focus on these problem areas. The bottleneck in the In Development phase could mean that we do not have enough developers, which causes the efficiency in the In Testing phase, where our testers are simply sitting around waiting for work to come through.

  This raises a common question—what should be the correct constraints for my columns? The quick answer is, try and experiment as you go .

  The long answer is, there is no single correct, silver bullet answer. What you need to understand is that there are many factors that can influence the throughput of your team, such as the size of your team, a team member leaving or joining, and the tasks at hand. In our example, the easy solution would be to lower the limit for both columns, and then we are done. But often, it is just as important for you to find the root cause of the problem rather than trying to simply fix the board itself. Perhaps what you should try to do is get more developers on your team so that you can keep up the pace that is required for delivery. The take away here is that the Kanban board

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