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Process Improvement with Kanban

To maintain a competitive advantage, businesses must seek to continuously improve and possibly reinvent their processes. Process Improvement is a proactive and systematic approach to streamlining business processes to improve the quality of outputs, lessen costs, and simplify the work. Your business processes are not meant to be fixed. There will be inevitable changes to the way you do your work. These can be due to the presence of inefficiencies or defects, the advent of new technologies, changing market demands, new

2023-09-18T06:17:50-07:00August 31st, 2018|

Kanban WIP Limits

Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) Have you ever had to accomplish multiple tasks and decided to chip bits and pieces from each one hoping to complete them all at the same time? Did you feel like you were not accomplishing anything with this approach? Did it feel like it was taking you longer to complete the tasks? How about that time when you were in the middle of working on a task then your boss tells you, “We have an urgent task you need to

2022-08-19T11:37:08-07:00August 13th, 2018|

Resources

Our team of Kanban coaches and experts are always adding more resources to support our clients' needs for continuous improvement. Our goal is to help anyone and everyone to learn about Kanban, Lean Thinking and Agile through our library of articles and books. Check out the resources below to explore key Kanban and Lean Thinking concepts. Learn everything about Kanban. What is Kanban? What is a Kanban board? Kanban Properties Visualizing Workflow Limit Work in Progress Measure and Manage Flow Making Explicit Process Policies Process

2023-08-08T14:04:48-07:00July 26th, 2018|

Doing Being and Flowing in Kanban (5P and 3M)

Kanban is such a simple and effective approach to improving any process. As more individuals, teams, and organizations adopt Kanban to increase value to customers, reduce cost and increase innovation, it’s critical to grasp the few core elements of Kanban. To get the full benefit of Kanban, practitioners must achieve mastery of both their process and the mindset of Kanban. The latter is possible by embracing the 5 properties in Kanban (5P) and the conscious effort to manage wasteful behaviors with Muda, Mura and Muri

2022-12-06T16:20:37-07:00August 1st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , , |

Coaching (Agile, Kanban & Lean)

Our coaching services are designed to assess your needs and provide a clear plan of action. We obviously track all of our coaching on a Kanban board that visualizes all of the coaching engagement’s key deliverables. Our customers are the ones who flow the coaching deliverables to the “Done” column based on clear acceptance criteria. Start with scheduling an initial coaching call to let us know exactly what you are seeking to improve. This call will give you a great idea about what to

2023-02-06T08:26:12-07:00February 14th, 2017|

Muda, Mura, Muri

Stemming from the Toyota Production System, the 3M model - Muda, Mura, Muri - exposes the culprits to inefficient processes that plague business operations. But why do we need to tackle all three of them?The goal of Lean is to deliver increased value to the customer by eliminating wasteful processes. When one talks about waste in this sense, often they refer to the seven wastes in manufacturing or Muda from the 3M model. Mura and Muri are often excluded from the picture but knowing these two

2023-01-15T15:48:57-07:00January 18th, 2016|

Lean Thinking

What is Lean Thinking? Lean Thinking is a business methodology based on the history of Japanese manufacturing techniques which have been applied worldwide within many types of industries. It is ultimately a mindset - a way of viewing the world - that aims to handle work in a Lean manner. Lean puts focus on providing high levels of customer value by continuously improving business processes. The Lean Thinking concept is more than just using tools or changing a few steps in a business

2022-08-15T17:37:57-07:00January 17th, 2016|

What is Kanban

Every organization or team should aim for process efficiency as this enables teams to achieve higher levels of productivity and better quality products and services. While there are a lot of techniques and methodologies out there that teams can explore and use for their improvement initiatives, here is one method that is gaining traction within a number of industries today because of its straightforward approach to process improvement. Kanban is a simple method to visualize work and as a result, better manage it. Nowadays, it

2023-09-18T05:27:50-07:00January 17th, 2016|

Creating a Culture of Shared Leadership: Tips for Leaders and Managers

In the context of Lean management, shared leadership has been finding increased application in many different business segments over the years. Whether you are a leader, manager or even willing to become one, learning about shared leadership can be valuable. In this article, we explain what a shared leadership model is, some of its main characteristics, the benefits of using shared leadership and some tips for leaders and managers to create a culture of shared leadership. The Shared Leadership Model Shared leadership is a management

2023-08-27T21:39:56-07:00July 10th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Lean Six Sigma Principles

Lean Six Sigma is a fusion of two of the best management techniques - the Lean method and Six Sigma. Applying Lean Six Sigma allows businesses to improve overall efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. This is achieved by eliminating waste, reducing variation, decreasing defects, and removing non-value adding activities in the process. It allows better quality products and services and faster delivery. But Lean Six Sigma is not a plug-and-play method. More than the process involved, it requires a paradigm shift in business operations. It needs

2020-06-18T12:44:33-07:00June 18th, 2020|

How to Successfully Manage Process Variations

In today’s highly globalized economy, technology allows businesses to transact with consumers outside their geographical boundaries. Companies set up offices offshore to cater to their global clientele and top regional talent. The