The following may sound strangely familiar to you: Somehow, teamwork sometimes comes to a halt. Some things remain untouched forever, other issues are dealt with twice by mistake. Customers complain because their request has gone unanswered or the reply came in much too late. Some colleagues work extra hours; others seem to be far from working to capacity. In other words: It just doesn’t run smoothly...
The visualization of work packages and workflows is an approach that might be of help in this context. You’ll certainly ask yourself: How is this supposed to help? Visualization alone cannot possibly lead to improvements. This is true! However, visualization is only the first step. If the first step is done, you can start to change what you see and thus understand.
The key question is: How much of a pain is the problem of “not running smoothly”? Is the team (i.e. the department or unit) able, and does it want, to take its time to visualize all work packages and thus the workflow as well?
If the answer is ‘Yes’, it might be a good idea to consider the introduction of a Kanban system.
When does it make sense to use such a system?
Introducing a Kanban system or board makes sense for complex tasks in service or product areas or for knowledge work in general.
What is a Kanban system?
A Kanban board or system describes the value creation process of a team, with the delivery to an internal or external customer being the end of the process.
It includes six practices:
- Visualize: Similar to Scrum, work is visualized on a board and work packages are moved from left to right. In addition, the points in time when the package enters and exits the system is recorded. Various segments on the board are highlighted to indicate whether a package is work in progress or has been put on hold.
- Limit Work in Progress: The Kanban system, or individual segments thereof, should have a limit for parallel work. This ensures that employees are not suffering from work overloads and prevents customers from waiting too long. The system or process becomes predictable simply through limiting parallel work in terms of throughput and waiting period for the customer. Instead of the usual push system (the manager hands over the work packages to the employees and determines the delivery dates), Kanban uses a pull system. The pull system means that the employees themselves transfer their work packages to their own Kanban board, taking into account the limit for parallel work.
- Manage Flow: The visualization allows to identify and reduce bottlenecks, for example by an even more rigid limitation of parallel work. If some form of flow can be generated, thus eliminating bottlenecks and blockages, the service response time for the customer will improve. The overriding goal is to prevent a work overload for employees, to increase the quality of work and to make customers more satisfied. Or put more colloquially: STOP STARTING, START FINISHING!
- Make Policies Explicit: Rules for cooperation need to be clearly stated and must be visible for everyone involved. Transparency is one of the values of Kanban.
- Implement Feedback Loops and Improve Collaboratively / Evolve Experimentally go hand in hand. Everything that can be observed should be used to further improve the system. If an alleged improvement has been introduced, the team reviews at a later stage whether this improvement has been actually realized. If not, the change is undone immediately.
What does the word ‘Kanban’ mean?
The term ‘Kanban’ comes from Japanese and means, amongst others, ‘signboard’. The signboard shows where there is unused capacity for additional work to be done within the process.
Distinction to Scrum
The Kanban system, unlike Scrum, does not introduce new roles and workflows but initially accepts the current state as it is. Kanban assumes an evolutionary process which introduces changes in small steps and subject to the involvement of all people affected. For this purpose, Kanban supports leadership at all levels, which in turn is in line with a value-driven approach: Kanban is based on respect in any form whatsoever – between colleagues, towards the supplier, towards customers, and across the hierarchy levels within the organization.
Where does it come from?
Like Scrum, Kanban evolved from elements of the Toyota Production System. It follows the aspects of ‘Just-in-time‘ and ‘Respect for People’. David Anderson shaped the Kanban method in 2010 as a change management approach.
Getting started immediately
Needless to say, I would be happy if I have attracted your interest and you are willing to start immediately with visualizing your work. There are various tools to be found on the web which facilitate the creation of Kanban boards. But be careful! It is better to start from scratch on a piece of paper than customizing a predefined board to your very own needs because every single workflow is individual in nature and needs to be analyzed on a stand-alone basis. This is a prerequisite for visualization to become the starting point for improvements. If you start on a piece of paper, you should answer the following questions first:
- What different types of work packages do we have?
- Who generates work for us? Where does it come from?
- Where does it go? Who are we delivering our work to?
- In what frequency do the different types of work packages occur?
- What are the differences in our work in terms of complexity?
- What do our customers expect?
Once you have answered these questions, the Kanban board will take shape before you inner eye and you can get underway (or ask me). Good luck!
This text first appeared in my newsletter 'Innovation on Wednesday'. It is published every other Wednesday. For subscription click here