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 is applied within various industries making teams more efficient. Let’s discover what Kanban is, how it came about, and how it ultimately helps teams to improve their performance.

Kanban History – From Manufacturing to Knowledge Work

The Kanban methodology was pioneered by Toyota through the leadership of Taiichi Ohno, who is known as the father of the Toyota Production System. Ohno recognized the inefficiencies in their production line and sought ways to better their processes. A car is definitely a complex product to build; with around 30,000 parts and components moving through the assembly line things can get inefficient. Ohno saw how unnecessary inventory and low levels of productivity were apparent in their operations and decided to take action.

The Origins of Kanban

Ohno took a basic idea from the supermarket onto Toyota’s manufacturing process. Think about how you would do your grocery shopping. More often than not, you would only schedule a trip to the supermarket when you’re running low on items. You’d know this upon checking your stock at home and finding an empty pantry. You then go to the store and get your desired items from the grocery shelves. When supermarket crew notice shelves running low on a certain product, that’s when they replenish it. This then ensures that there’s enough stock for upcoming customers.

Visual signals like an empty pantry or supermarket shelf prompt people to pull from preceding processes.

Toyota Production System (TPS) – source: toyota-global.com

Thinking of it in the same way. Production processes can use pull systems to produce and move parts within the assembly line. In Toyota, they adapted the supermarkets stock concept to help line workers recognize when and in what amount certain parts need to be prepared and transported. The preceding process, who is in charge of making the parts ready, supplies the parts to the next process when they need it and only in the amount needed.

To easily communicate within the shop floor, they used visual signals in the form of cards to signal their need for a component. And this is where Kanban goes into play.

Kanban Definition

Kanban is the Japanese word for “card”. In Toyota, assembly line workers used cards to communicate when they needed something from another department or process. This helped them reduce waste and increase their process efficiency. Kanban provides a visual for both the workflow and the actual work that goes through the workflow. Ever since its creation, it has helped organizations identify potential issues and bottlenecks in the workflow, allowing them to resolve the issue and let work flow efficiently at an optimal pace or throughput.

The Evolution of Kanban

What originated from the manufacturing industry is now being used in various businesses. We now see Kanban in knowledge work, quite prominently in software development. We base our implementation of Kanban on these three key sources on this matter:

1. Personal Kanban from Modus Institute
2. Kanban Method from Kanban University
3. Professional Kanban from ProKanban.org

Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria of Modus Institute, creator and authors of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life, define Personal Kanban as having two explicit rules: visualize work and limit Work In Progress (WIP). Visualizing work is common to all Kanban definitions as the word Kanban translates from Japanese to English as a signboard.

In addition to visualizing work and having WIP limits, other practices are expressed in the Kanban Method from David J. Anderson at Kanban University. These are managing flow, making policies explicit, implementing feedback loops, and improving collaboratively, evolving experimentally. Anderson clarified that Kanban is not to be mistaken for software development or project management process. He emphasized that Kanban is seen and used as a method or technique to help an existing software development or project management process improve gradually.

Daniel Vacanti who co-authored the Kanban Guides at ProKanban.org with John Coleman from Kanplexity focus on these three practices:

• Defining and visualizing a workflow
• Actively managing items in a workflow
• Improving a workflow

They introduce the term Kanban system when you implement these three Kanban practices above and these 4 Kanban Measures: WIP, Throughput, Work Item Age, and Cycle Time that you can discover in more details in our Kanban metrics.

Indeed, the application of Kanban is no longer confined to the manufacturing industry. In recent years, we’ve seen Kanban being adapted to Agile Scrum – giving birth to ScrumBan. We now see companies in SaaS, software development, media, investment, and banking industries reaping the benefits of the Kanban methodology in their operations.

Scrum vs Kanban

Kanban is often compared to Scrum as the two have been the leading management methodologies for facilitating Agile management in recent years. Both Scrum and Kanban aim to enhance productivity and ensure efficient delivery of high-quality products, but they do so through different approaches.

In essence, Kanban emphasizes flexibility and continuous delivery, making it suitable for ongoing processes and teams focused on optimizing workflows. 

On the other hand, Scrum offers a structured approach with time-boxed iterations, making it ideal for projects that require regular feedback and iterative development. 

The choice between Kanban and Scrum depends on factors such as the team’s workflow, project requirements, and the desired level of structure to achieve project goals.

For an in-depth comparison between Kanban and Scrum, visit our dedicated article on the topic.

Key Elements of Kanban

At the heart of Kanban lie two fundamental tools instrumental in visualizing and managing processes in a more effective way –  the Kanban board and Kanban cards.

Kanban Board

A Kanban board is a visual representation of the workflow, typically divided into columns that represent different stages of a process, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” 

The board provides a clear and concise overview of the work status, making it easier for teams to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, and ensure a smooth flow of tasks. The columns can be customized based on the specific needs of the project, allowing for a flexible and adaptable workflow visualization.

Kanban Cards

Kanban cards represent individual tasks or work items that move through the various stages depicted on the Kanban board. Each card contains essential information about the task, such as a description, assignee, due date, and any relevant details or attachments. 

These cards can be color-coded or labeled to indicate different types of work, priorities, or categories, enhancing the clarity and organization of tasks. As work progresses, Kanban cards are moved across the columns on the board, providing a tangible and immediate visual indication of the task’s status.

Together, a Kanban board and Kanban cards create a dynamic and visual workflow management system. Teams can easily see what needs to be done, who is working on what, and what has been completed, fostering collaboration and communication.

Benefits of Kanban

Kanban offers numerous benefits that enhance workflow management and productivity. One of the primary advantages is its visual nature, which provides a clear and immediate overview of the entire workflow. 

By using a Kanban board, teams can easily see the status of tasks, identify bottlenecks, and understand what needs attention, leading to better communication and collaboration. This visualization helps in maintaining transparency, as everyone on the team is aware of the current progress and any issues that may arise.

Another significant benefit of Kanban is its flexibility. Unlike other project management methodologies that require fixed iterations or sprints, Kanban allows for continuous delivery of work. 

This means tasks can be added, prioritized, and completed without waiting for a specific time frame, making it ideal for projects with unpredictable or varying workloads. Teams can adapt quickly to changes and focus on delivering value incrementally, which enhances responsiveness and customer satisfaction.

Continuous improvement is another core benefit of Kanban. Through regular reviews of the workflow and performance metrics, teams can identify areas for improvement and implement changes incrementally. This ongoing process of refinement fosters a culture of continuous learning and development, leading to better outcomes over time.

How to Implement Kanban

These 5 core Kanban properties will guide teams in implementing Kanban in their current process.

Visualize the Workflow

The first step to implementing Kanban is to model how the current process operates. Having a visual representation of the process allows teams to examine the flow of work through their Kanban system.

A team can track and improve its processes with the support of a Kanban board, an essential tool for visualizing the workflow. This can be done on a physical board or with the help of Kanban software. Once the team has visualized their workflow, each process step is translated as columns on the board. In the simplest possible form, the Kanban board has three columns – To Do, In Progress, and Done.

You could also use Kanban swimlanes to categorize or group tasks within a step or column in your board, keeping things more organized.

The workflow is tracked by cards moving through the columns. Usually, they contain the task name, who’s assigned to do the job and a detailed description. Cards also contain effort estimates, priority, deadline, size, etc.

Kanban board examples are available on KZ to get you thinking about how you should model your team’s process.

Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP)

Controlling the number of work items within each step in the process reduces the cycle time or the amount of time it takes for an item to go through a Kanban system successfully. Limiting WIP also helps teams focus on the task at hand and get it completely done before moving on to the next task.

You can see the impact of using WIP limits using a simulation like Featureban from Mike Burrows. These simulations clearly show how introducing WIP limits increases a team’s productivity.

Measure & Manage Flow

With better visibility of the workflow and enforcing WIP limits, teams can better diagnose their process efficiency. They can determine at what step in the process tasks are building up if tasks are being blocked, and whether team members are operating at an optimal capacity or are overburdened. As your teams go through the work, you can collect process metrics, such as cycle time and lead time, to help you analyze what needs improvement in your current process.

Having metrics and a process visual makes it easier for teams to spot weaknesses in their process and implement necessary changes to refine it.

Make Process Policies Explicit

Stating process policies explicitly establishes a common understanding within the team on how work should be performed and what the expectations are on the outputs of each step in the process. These policies also act as a checklist for the team to ensure consistency and quality in the application of their work. It is recommended that process policies be displayed on the Kanban board so that team members can easily see and be reminded of them.

Use Models to Recognize Improvement Opportunities

Teams should endeavor to analyze their current process and examine areas that can be improved. Value Stream mapping is a modeling technique that teams can use to thoroughly examine their process. Value Stream Mapping helps teams focus on value-adding activities in their process; helping them identify which activities are wasteful and should be removed.

How to Make the Most Out of Your Kanban Adoption

Following these four foundational Kanban principles will enable teams to fully reap the benefits of this methodology. They allow you to apply Kanban without making significant adjustments to your existing processes. Instead, the principles assist you in gradually improving your approach over time and reaching greater outcomes overall.

1. Start with what you do now

As David J. Anderson put it, “Kanban is not a software development lifecycle methodology or an approach to project management. It requires that some process is already in place so that Kanban can be applied to incrementally change the underlying process.”

Teams should not introduce changes to their process right away. With the implementation of Kanban, let the inefficiencies surface and then gradually change your process as you collect data and metrics about your current workflow and team efficiency.

2. Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change

A desirable characteristic of Kanban is that it does not introduce or require radical changes. Incremental changes allow for lesser resistance from team members and the organization; making it faster to manifest positive change.

3. Respect the current process, roles, responsibilities, and titles

Implementing Kanban does not require a change in team roles and responsibilities or imposition of titles. As mentioned in the first principle. It also does not require an immediate change in the process. It is up to the team to decide what roles would do well for their process, and when a change in their process is needed. Similar to the second principle, this allows teams to easily digest changes as they are more manageable and less intimidating.

4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

One thing Kanban amplifies is accountability. With process data and work progress becoming transparent, teams must take it upon themselves to enact changes. The initiative or directive doesn’t need to come from a team leader or manager. Every team member is encouraged to pitch in ideas and lead process improvement initiatives to continuously better their ways of working and consequently, their products and services.

Kanban FAQs

Even though we tried answering as many questions related to Kanban as possible in this guide, there are still several frequently asked ones that we get all the time. That’s why we are giving them a highlight in the following paragraphs.

Can any type of team use Kanban?

Yes, Kanban is versatile and can be adapted to various types of teams and industries. It is particularly beneficial for teams that need flexibility and continuous delivery rather than fixed iterations.

Do I need specific tools for Kanban? 

No specific software is required to implement Kanban. Many teams start with simple physical boards and sticky notes, although digital tools like Kanban Zone come with added value like the ability to use from any point of the globe with access to the Internet, integrations with other tools, process analytics, automation, and more. Learn more about Kanban tools…

Can new tasks be added at any time in Kanban? 

Yes, one of the main advantages of Kanban is its flexibility. New tasks can be added and priorities can be adjusted at any time, which is beneficial for dynamic work environments.

Is Kanban suitable for cross-functional teams? 

Yes, effective Kanban implementation often involves cross-functional teams to ensure all necessary skills are available to complete tasks efficiently.

Is training required to implement Kanban? 

Training can be beneficial for getting the most out of Kanban, especially if a team is not familiar with Lean or Agile management. On the upside, it’s incredibly easy to get started even without training. You just need to stick to the principles and practices listed earlier in our guide. If you seek training then you can browse these training options.