How do you control work in progress and prevent bottlenecks with kanban?

1 What is kanban and why is it useful?

Kanban is a Japanese word that means signboard or card. It originated from Toyota's production system, where workers used cards to communicate the demand and supply of parts and materials. Kanban helps you align your work with the customer's needs and avoid overproduction, underproduction, and inventory. It also helps you identify and eliminate waste, such as waiting, defects, and rework.

2 How to set up a kanban system?

A kanban system consists of three main elements: kanban cards, kanban boards, and kanban signals. Kanban cards are visual representations of the work items, such as tasks, orders, or products. They contain information such as the name, description, priority, and status of the work item. Kanban boards are visual displays of the work flow, such as the steps, stages, or processes involved in completing the work item. They show the progress and status of the work items using columns, lanes, and colors. Kanban signals are cues that trigger the movement of work items from one stage to another. They can be physical, such as empty bins, flags, or lights, or digital, such as emails, notifications, or alerts.

3 How to control WIP and prevent bottlenecks with kanban?

Kanban is a key principle that involves limiting the amount of work in progress (WIP) at each stage of the work flow. This reduces cycle time, improves quality, and increases throughput. To prevent bottlenecks, which are points in the work flow that accumulate and slow down production, you need to define the capacity of each stage and assign WIP limits to each stage. Kanban cards are used to represent work items and move them along the kanban board, while kanban signals indicate when a work item is ready to move to the next stage or when a stage needs more work items. It's important to monitor the work flow and adjust the WIP limits and kanban signals as needed for optimal production.

4 What are the benefits of using kanban?

Using kanban can offer several advantages, such as improving customer satisfaction by delivering value faster and more consistently, reducing waste by eliminating overproduction, underproduction, and inventory, and increasing efficiency by streamlining the work flow and reducing the cycle time. Additionally, it can enhance quality by minimizing defects and rework, as well as foster collaboration by improving communication and transparency among the team members and stakeholders.

5 What are the challenges of using kanban?

Using kanban can also pose some challenges, such as getting buy-in from team members and stakeholders who may be resistant to change, setting realistic WIP limits and kanban signals, maintaining the kanban system and updating the cards and boards regularly, balancing demand and supply of work items, and continuously improving the kanban system and work flow. All of these tasks require careful consideration of the nature and complexity of the work, as well as the customer's needs and production capacity.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?