Kanban Definition
Kanban, in simpler words, is a manual or digital management tool that helps companies oversee their operations in real time and improve efficiency along the way.
Kanban is one of the most adopted project management systems these days. It is a methodology that is a popular choice for contemporary enterprises and countless organizations.
Kanban originates from the Japanese word for “billboard” or “sign board.” It lays heavy emphasis on workflow visualization as the key to more productive, efficient and cooperative teams and organizations. Integrating Kanban within your enterprise can usher in major transformations and lasting benefits across all your organizational tiers.
Here, we will discover:
What is a Kanban Board?
A Kanban board is an agile project management tool that uses visual elements and fixed delivery points to help you see work and plan, track, and optimize an efficiency strategy.
Industries where Kanban boards are used:
- Manufacturing
- Human resources
- DevOps software development
- And more..
They can be used by teams or individuals by systematizing and prioritizing daily work assignments. They’re primarily used for work with particular needs but you can create one of your own using either a visual board or a virtual one.
Types of Kanban
Let’s talk about the most common two types of kanban:
Physical Kanban boards
To create a physical Kanban board, just partition a whiteboard or chalkboard into vertical columns, then designate each column in your project to a different stage. Instruct your team to use colour-coded sticky notes to indicate different activities to complete — stickies serve as visual indicators that make up your process and allow you to track progress along with it. A physical Kanban board could work incredibly well for smaller teams or individual use.
Digital Kanban boards
A digital Kanban board may be better suited for larger teams or teams that work remotely.
Digital boards can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, allowing for universal access to information and a more streamlined workflow for everyone. They’re easy to make, and faster to update than a physical board.
They can also give you extra information about your team’s performance at a glance; information such as the ability to monitor work-in-progress (WIP) limits, cumulative flow diagrams, and cycle times, so you can make more informed decisions about what your team needs to keep their workflow smooth.
How Does Kanban Work?
Kanban functions on the following principles:
1. Track Workflow
To effectively visualize the workflow using Kanban, you must have a dashboard or workflow display.
The columns on the display frequently signify the sequential stages of your procedure, while the cards contained within these stages represent specific activities.
You should begin by comprehending each stage of the production of a product or system, beginning with its concept and ending with its completion, before creating your workflow display.
Once you map the existing processes, Kanban can help you create an exact visual representation of your process.
As people complete their jobs, the cards move through the columns or stages of the workflow so that bottlenecks or places needing improvement can be identified!
2. Limit Work-in-Progress
The primary goal is to eliminate delays by limiting the number of activities in a process. Kanban often does this by imposing a limit on the number of concurrent projects; the number of deliverable tasks you’re allowed in each column is your limit, so you can move additional jobs forward only if there’s room. That puts the emphasis on single-tasking, reducing both waste and inefficiency.
3. Task Management Over People Management
Kanban also values the management of tasks as they proceed through the process, rather than the management of individuals. This allows staff to have greater autonomy in their roles and further eliminates occurrences of micromanagement.
4. Clearly Communicate Policies
In approaching collaborative improvement, it is necessary that all members of the team understand the new process policies of Kanban. Organizations must outline an exact definition of kanban, make public the guiding concepts, and ensure ready access for all of those involved. Acquainting each team member with the same aim can only enhance the cohesiveness of a workflow, while little is left to misunderstanding or delay.
5. Make Collaborative Enhancements
One way Kanban helps facilitate an enduring organizational change, driven by a shared understanding of the need for progress, is by the necessity of making workflow enhancements to support it. This requires a shared understanding of the goals and the inspiration to work toward achieving them in a collaborative fashion. For example, introducing Kanban principles might help staff become more inspired, and take more initiative in working together, to reduce the number of items they are all working on at any given time.
There you go! This is everything you must know about kanban.