Our Kanban boards act as a Kanban system (important to distinguish this from the Kanban method which means something different).
The Japanese word Kanban literally translates to Signal Card.
By extension of this literal translation, the Kanban system is a ticketing system that allows us to manage the work items.
OK
so we want a coffee and we pop in to Starbucks, queue up and then order
a coffee.
The person with the funny haircut at the counter creates Kanban, of a specific work type. That is, they pick up the relevant coffee cup and writes down the type of coffee chosen, the milk type, the extras selected, and name of the customer.
When there is a person free to make coffee, she will grab the next empty cup and make the coffee to spec.
Then there is a guy handing the coffees out to the customers - they pick up the next coffee and call out the name of the customer and hands it over.
If the shop is busy, then maybe the person taking orders will also help out with making the coffee. That means that we might have to wait a little longer between getting our coffee, but we know we will get it soon enough.
This highlights the importance of flow efficiency and how it is better than an environment where we have to pull work items into progress.
In Starbucks the output is a very tangible cup of Venti Vanilla Soy Double-shot Frappucino. The Kanban is attached to the physical output all the way.
We are lucky enough to be involved every day with knowledge based work.
However there is nothing tangible to attach to our work items as they move closer to completion.This is an important distinction.
It means that we should only use the Kanban boards as:
If
we have failed to use he board to manage our work cleanly or
communicate effectively then we have jumped the shark just like Fonzy!
(when I say efficiency, I mean reducing the amount of time our cards are not being worked on. If a card has a lead time of 10 days, and it spend 2 of those days in progress, and 8 days in waiting, then it has a 20% efficiency).
If we have a card with poor efficiency, then it is an indicator that we have not managed our bottlenecks well, and we have not tuned our WIP accordingly.
High efficiency is not a goal we are trying to achieve but can be a measure of how well we are managing our work items.
"both the first and last finisher in the marathon had 100% flow efficiency"
Going back to the Starbucks example - if you go into any busy Starbucks at lunchtime, you will never see the coffee machine inactive.
They are controlling their bottlenecks to have maximum efficiency. They might even have more than one machine, attempting to reduce the burden on the bottleneck, and improve the flow, getting as many cups of coffee out as quickly as possible and make bucketfuls of cash.
And so it goes for us. We should constantly look to where our bottleneck exists and maximise and alleviate it.
The Japanese word Kanban literally translates to Signal Card.
By extension of this literal translation, the Kanban system is a ticketing system that allows us to manage the work items.
Real World Kanban system
An obvious example (that I think everyone has heard of) is the Starbucks coffee cup.OK
so we want a coffee and we pop in to Starbucks, queue up and then order
a coffee.The person with the funny haircut at the counter creates Kanban, of a specific work type. That is, they pick up the relevant coffee cup and writes down the type of coffee chosen, the milk type, the extras selected, and name of the customer.
When there is a person free to make coffee, she will grab the next empty cup and make the coffee to spec.
Then there is a guy handing the coffees out to the customers - they pick up the next coffee and call out the name of the customer and hands it over.
Flow V Pull in Starbucks
Now think about what happens when the shop is not busy - we walk in, give our order and it is made immediately - super quick.If the shop is busy, then maybe the person taking orders will also help out with making the coffee. That means that we might have to wait a little longer between getting our coffee, but we know we will get it soon enough.
This highlights the importance of flow efficiency and how it is better than an environment where we have to pull work items into progress.
"Flow if you can, pull if you must"
Knowledge based teams Kanban Systems
It is similar to how our work should be managed on our boards, however with starbucks there is an extremely important distinction.In Starbucks the output is a very tangible cup of Venti Vanilla Soy Double-shot Frappucino. The Kanban is attached to the physical output all the way.
We are lucky enough to be involved every day with knowledge based work.
However there is nothing tangible to attach to our work items as they move closer to completion.This is an important distinction.
It means that we should only use the Kanban boards as:
- a communication device
- A tool to manage our work.
- A visual aid to interested parties to the status of the work - a mirror to the state of what our teams are doing right now.
If
we have failed to use he board to manage our work cleanly or
communicate effectively then we have jumped the shark just like Fonzy!Flow V Pull in knowledge based work
Going back to the Starbucks example - during lunchtime, Starbucks are forced into a state of Queuing, and that causes delays. In our environment we can try to control that. We want to have flow and increase the efficiency of our working ways(when I say efficiency, I mean reducing the amount of time our cards are not being worked on. If a card has a lead time of 10 days, and it spend 2 of those days in progress, and 8 days in waiting, then it has a 20% efficiency).
If we have a card with poor efficiency, then it is an indicator that we have not managed our bottlenecks well, and we have not tuned our WIP accordingly.
High efficiency is not a goal we are trying to achieve but can be a measure of how well we are managing our work items.
"both the first and last finisher in the marathon had 100% flow efficiency"
Going back to the Starbucks example - if you go into any busy Starbucks at lunchtime, you will never see the coffee machine inactive.
They are controlling their bottlenecks to have maximum efficiency. They might even have more than one machine, attempting to reduce the burden on the bottleneck, and improve the flow, getting as many cups of coffee out as quickly as possible and make bucketfuls of cash.
And so it goes for us. We should constantly look to where our bottleneck exists and maximise and alleviate it.
