home Converter Kanban in the office. However, as he and Anderson began analyzing XIT's performance, he quickly identified key factors that were negatively impacting the department's speed.

Kanban in the office. However, as he and Anderson began analyzing XIT's performance, he quickly identified key factors that were negatively impacting the department's speed.

KANBAN

Kanban system- a pulling system for organizing production and supply, allowing the implementation of the Just-In-Time principle.

Developed and implemented for the first time in the world by Toyota. In 1959, this company began experimenting with the Kanban system and in 1962 began the process of converting all production to Kanban principles. Kanban is based on the theoretical constructs of F. Taylor (1856-1915); G. Ford (1863-1947), as well as some provisions of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism and Confucianism.

The organization of production of the Toyota company is based on an annual plan for the production and sale of cars, on the basis of which monthly and operational plans for average daily production at each site are drawn up, based on forecasting consumer demand (lead period - 1 and 3 months). Daily production schedules are prepared only for the main assembly line. For workshops and areas serving the main conveyor, production schedules are not drawn up (they only establish approximate monthly production volumes).

The constant use of the just-in-time philosophy makes it possible to uncover hitherto undetected defects. Inventory is very well suited for hiding defects. Only when inventory decreases can problems be seen. It's very similar to how high level water hides underwater reefs.

"Kanban" means card in Japanese.

There are two types of Kanban system:

- container “Kanban”;

- card "Kanban".

Container "Kanban" is a unit of container on which the "Kanban" tag is located. The Kanban tag on the container is rigidly fixed and has the following contents:

The name of detail;

Detail number;

Number of details;

Address of the recipient of the part;

Part sender address.

The system for ordering parts and assemblies using containerized “Kanban” is carried out as follows: as the parts in the first containerized “Kanban” are finished, the operator removes it from the workplace to the lower tier of the rack (the lower tier of the rack is the place for storing the operator’s orders and receiving orders by the transporter) and works from the second. The transporter picks up the empty container and, since a “Kanban” is attached to the container, Feedback between the operator and the storekeeper through the transporter for ordering materials.

Container Kanban has a drawback - an additional amount of containers is required for each unit of part or CI when creating a warehouse.

Card Kanban is a card divided into four sections:

Card color;

Part sender address;

Part name, part number, number of parts or assemblies required for delivery to the recipient's address;

Address of the recipient of the part.

One of the color options:

Blue - production “Kanban” (between the production line and the delivery area);

Red - warehouse “Kanban” (between the warehouse and the delivery area);

Green - inter-shop “Kanban” (between workshops, production plants, etc.).

Delivery of parts must be carried out on transport carts. Inside the workshop, electric transport should be excluded, as this requires additional costs for maintenance, repairs, an additional number of workers and affects the safety of others. The transport trolley contains four compartments: for large parts; for medium parts; for small parts; for empty containers.

Large parts, both in the warehouse and at the operator’s workplace, must be transferred manually; they must be rolled from the transport cart onto workplace, or vice versa. Transportation of parts to workplaces must be carried out in such a way that the transporter does not enter the operator’s work area. To do this, it is necessary to indicate at the operators’ workplaces all the addresses of the parts according to the layout, with reverse side operator's desktop.

The first principle of the Kanban system- the Kanban tag must be in the container with the parts or attached to them.

The second principle of the Kanban system- two “Kanbans” at the workplace, i.e. At one workplace it is allowed to have two standards of parts. This principle applies only to small and medium-sized parts, the transportation of which is carried out in special containers - this principle sets the time for transporting parts.

The third principle of the Kanban system- absence of defective parts on the production line (conveyor), since if defective parts get onto the conveyor, there will be no stable operation of the transporter and the operation of the conveyor.

The fourth principle of the Kanban system- formation new scheme warehouse facilities:

There should be one warehouse, as close as possible to the conveyor;

The warehouse is formed according to the principle of a self-service store - the transporter moves around the warehouse and himself collects the necessary parts and assembly units into a cart;

Parts and CIs in the required quantity must be prepared for the transporter by warehouse workers, one of the most important factors is the absence of recalculation, or rapid recalculation (measured, cellular containers). The transfer of goods and materials from the transporter to the operator should also be carried out without recalculation - people’s trust in each other comes to the fore.

For rational use working hours of a storekeeper, transporter, etc., it is necessary to apply - simplify the document flow system (use barcoding).

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Synonyms:

Books

Kanban and just-in-time at Toyota. Management starts at the workplace. About the quest for improvement, dating back to the samurai tradition, according to which a warrior never ceases to improve his skills and sharpen his sword. About the kanban system and just-in-time...

I'm going to write several articles about the new agile development methodology Kanban (Kanban Development) in order to prepare for the Scandinavian Agile Conference 2009, where I will be giving one of the reports (by the way, I also invite everyone to the conference).
Today I publish the first of the articles.
The main objective of the first article is to describe the basics of Kanban as simply as possible: what it is, how it differs from other flexible methodologies and why it is needed.
I would also like to collect as many questions and doubts as possible in the comments to answer them in future articles, so write anything that you don’t understand or anything else you would like to know about Kanban.
I’m not exactly a big expert in this new methodology, but within the team we came to Kanban on our own and consistently went through all the stages of mutation from SCRUM to Kanban, so we have practical experience.

First, I’ll write about the origin of the term Kanban.

This term came to us from Japan thanks to the Toyota production system, widely known in narrow circles. I would like as many people as possible to read about this system and the basic principles embedded in it - lean production, continuous development, customer focus, etc. All these principles are described in Taiichi Ohno's book The Toyota Production System, which has been translated into Russian.

The term Kanban has a literal translation: “Kan” means visible, visual, and “ban” means card or board.
At Toyota factories, Kanban cards are used everywhere to avoid cluttering warehouses and work areas with pre-created spare parts. For example, imagine installing doors on a Toyota Corolla. You have a pack of 10 doors near your workplace. You put them one after another on new cars and when there are 5 doors left in the pack, then you know that it’s time to order new doors. You take a Kanban card, write an order for 10 doors on it and take it to the person who makes the doors. You know that he will make them just in time for you to run out of the remaining 5 doors. And that's exactly what happens - when you install the last door, a pack of 10 new doors arrives. And this happens all the time - you order new doors only when you need them.
Now imagine that such a system operates throughout the entire plant. There are no warehouses anywhere where spare parts sit for weeks and months. Everyone works only on request and produces exactly as many spare parts as requested. If suddenly there are more or fewer orders, the system itself easily adapts to the changes.

The main purpose of Kanban cards in this system is to reduce the amount of work “performed in this moment work" (work in progress).
For example, an entire production line might have exactly 10 door cards allocated to it. This means that at any given time there will be no more than 10 ready-made doors on the line. When to order new doors and how much is a task for the one who installs them. Only he knows his needs, and only he can place orders with the door manufacturer, but he is always limited to 10.
This Lean manufacturing method was invented at Toyota and now many manufacturing companies It is being implemented or has already been implemented all over the world.

But this all relates to production, not software development.
What is Kanban development in relation to software, and how does it differ from other flexible methodologies, be it SCRUM or XP?

First, you need to immediately understand that Kanban is not specific process, but a value system. Just like SCRUM with XP. This means that no one will tell you what and how to do step by step.
Secondly, all of Kanban can be described in one simple phrase - “Reducing the work currently in progress (work in progress)”.
Thirdly, Kanban is an even more “flexible” methodology than SCRUM and XP. This means that it will not suit all teams or all projects. And it also means that the team must be even more ready to work agilely than even teams using SCRUM and XP.

Difference between Kanban and SCRUM:
- In Kanban there are no timeboxes for anything (neither tasks nor sprints)
- In Kanban there are more tasks and fewer of them
- In Kanban, estimates of deadlines for a task are optional or not at all
- In Kanban, there is no “team speed” and only the average time to complete a task is considered

Now look at this list and think about what remains of agile methodology, if we remove sprints, increase task sizes and stop measuring the speed of the team? Nothing?
How can we even talk about development control if we remove the main control tools - deadlines, work speed and sprints? For me, this question is almost the most important.
managers always think about control and try to gain it, although in reality they never have it. Control of development by the manager is a fiction. If the team doesn’t want to work, then no matter how you control it, it will fail the project.
If the team enjoys the work and works with full dedication, then no control is needed, but only interferes and increases costs.
For example, the well-known problem of SCRUM is the large costs of discussions, meetings and large losses of time at the junctions of sprints (when at least a day is spent closing one sprint, and then a day opening a new one. And if the sprint is 2 weeks, then 2 days out of 2 weeks is 20%, a damn lot). As a result, almost 30-40% of the time when using SCRUM is spent on maintaining the process itself - on daily meetings, on 5% workshops, on sprint retrospectives, etc. thirty%!

Kanban development differs from SCRUM primarily in its focus on tasks. If in SCRUM the main focus of the team is the successful completion of sprints (we must admit that this is true), then in Kanban tasks come first.
There are no sprints; the team works on a task from the very beginning until completion. Deployment of a task is done when it is ready. Presentation of completed work - too. The team should not estimate the time to complete a task, because this makes little sense and is almost always wrong at the beginning.
If the manager trusts the team, then why have a time estimate? The manager's job is to create a prioritized pool of tasks, and the team's job is to complete as many tasks from that pool as possible. All. No control is needed. All that is needed from the manager is to add tasks to this pool or change their priority. This is how he manages the project.

The team uses a Kanban board to work. For example, it might look like this (taken):

Columns from left to right:

Project goals:
Optional but useful column. You can put high-level project goals here so that the team can see them and everyone knows about them. For example, “Increase speed by 20%” or “Add support for Windows 7.”

Task queue:
This is where tasks are stored and ready to be started. The top, highest priority task is always taken for execution and its card is moved to the next column.

Design development:
This and the remaining columns up to “Completed” may change because it is the team that decides what steps the task goes through to reach the “Completed” state.
For example, this column may contain tasks for which the code or interface design is not yet clear and is under discussion. When discussions are completed, the task moves to the next column.

Development:
Here the task hangs until the development of the feature is completed. Once completed, it moves to the next column.
Or, if the architecture is not correct or accurate, the task can be returned to the previous column.

Testing:
The task is in this column while it is being tested. If errors are found, it is returned to Development. If not, it moves on.

Deployment:
All projects have their own deployment. For someone it means to post new version product to the server, while for others, simply commit the code to the repository.

Finished:
The sticker goes here only when all work on the task is completely completed.

In any job there are urgent tasks. Planned or not, but those that need to be done right now. For these we can highlight special place(marked as “Expedite” in the picture). You can put one urgent task into Expedite and have the team start working on it immediately and complete it as quickly as possible. But there can only be one such task! If another one appears, it must be added to the “Task Queue”.

And now the most important thing. Do you see the numbers under each column? This is the number of tasks that can be in these columns at the same time. The numbers are selected experimentally, but it is believed that they should depend on the number of developers in the team.
For example, if you have 8 programmers in a team, then you can put the number 4 in the “Development” line. This means that programmers will do no more than 4 tasks at the same time, which means they will have many reasons to communicate and share experiences. If you put the number 2 there, then 8 programmers doing two tasks might get bored or waste too much time on discussions. If you set 8, then everyone will do their own task and some tasks will linger on the board for a long time, but the main task Kanban is a reduction in the time it takes for a task to pass from start to completion.
No one will give an exact answer as to what these limits should be, but first try dividing the number of developers by 2 and see how it works in your team. These numbers can then be adjusted to suit your team.
By “developers” I mean not only programmers, but also other specialists. For example, for the “Testing” column, developers are testers, because testing is their responsibility.

The tasks on such a board are not just tasks, but what is called a Minimum Marketing Feature, that is, a feature that can be “sold” to clients.
A good test for MMF is to ask yourself “Would I write about this feature on the company blog?” If not, it's not MMF.

What new and useful does such a board with limits provide?

Firstly, Reducing the number of parallel tasks greatly reduces the execution time of each individual task. There is no need to switch context between tasks, track different entities, schedule them, etc. - only what is needed is done. There is no need to organize sprint planning and 5% workshops, because planning has already been done in the “task queue” column, and detailed work on the task begins ONLY when the task begins to be executed.

Secondly, the plugs are immediately visible. For example, if testers do not cope with testing, then they will very soon fill their entire column and programmers who have completed a new task will no longer be able to move it to the testing column, because it's full. What to do? Now is the time to remember that “we are a team” and solve this problem. For example, programmers can help testers complete one of the testing tasks and only then move a new task to the free space. This will complete both tasks faster.

Thirdly, you can calculate the time to complete an average task. We can mark on the card the date when it was added to the task queue, then the date when it was started and the date when it was completed. Using these three points, for at least 10 tasks, you can already calculate the average waiting time in the task queue and the average task completion time. And from these numbers, the manager or product owner can already calculate whatever he wants.

All Kanban can be described by just three basic rules:
1. Visualize production
- Divide the work into tasks, write each task on a card and place it on the wall or board.
- Use named columns to show the status of a task in production.
2. Limit WIP(work in progress or work being done simultaneously) on every production stage.
3. Measure cycle time(average time to complete one task) and constantly optimize the process to reduce this time.

Only 3 rules!
For example, in SCRUM there are 9 basic rules. In XP - 13, and in classic RUP - as much as 120. Feel the difference.

This is where I will finish the first article about Kanban.
I look forward to your feedback and comments, as well as suggestions for future articles.

To use them in work, they came up with rules.

Kanban is an agile way of managing work. It contains only six rules and proposes an evolutionary transition from a conventional way of thinking to an agile one. Agile coaches often compare Kanban to water - it flows around the structure and hierarchy of the company and slowly begins to change them. Just as water wears away stones, Kanban changes the way you think.

You don’t need to put in a lot of effort to start being agile - there is no reorganization during the transition, and at first the familiar roles are preserved. Everything changes gradually and does not cause problems for the Team.

Who is Kanban suitable for?

Kanban has no restrictions. With its help, newlyweds plan their family budget, small divisions at Microsoft develop new programs, and Toyota manages all production.

There are separate branches of Kanban: production, software and personal. They are so different that the visualizations are completely different from each other. There are many stages of work in production, each has its own board and they are all scattered throughout the workshops. Cards indicate assembly stages, and visualization is aimed at supplying workshops with the necessary parts. IT specialists usually have a common board; it is designed for teamwork and helps manage work together.

How to use to be agile

There are only six rules in Kanban, they are introduced gradually. New ones are not added until the previous changes have become familiar to most employees.

At first, Kanban proposes to spare the old structure and hierarchy, so the changes will be evolutionary. All that is needed is a strong desire to start and encouragement of initiative in the company.

Rule 1: Visualize your task flow

Kanban relies on visualization. All tasks are written down in a visible place so you know how things are going at any time.

Visualization can be different: a board with sticky notes, a table with cards, a table in Excel, or programs like Trello and Jira. There is no right or wrong visualization - the good thing is what suits you:

For beginners, we recommend using a board or wall with sticky notes. Physical board more convenient than programs, because it is always before your eyes. You don’t need to turn on your computer, open your browser and go to the website to find out how the work is going. The team immediately sees the current picture.

The physical board is also emotionally warm. Just imagine that you have completed the task, walked up to the board and moved the card to another column. You are great, and everyone knows it. This won’t happen in Trello and Jira; the card will simply appear in a different column.

Write down all tasks. To create a visualization, you need to write down all the tasks that you are doing now and are going to do in the coming days. After this it will become clear how much you have real work, and how many are in the plans.

Determine task statuses. Task statuses are columns on the board. You can use different columns, there are no specific rules. To start with, we offer three: “To Do,” “Working,” and “Done.” Then you can break them down into smaller ones, if necessary, or come up with new statuses.

Important: all tasks must be on the board. You cannot work on what is not in the visualization.

Rule 2. Limit the amount of simultaneous work

Once the visualization is created, you will be surprised how much work the Team does in parallel. This is one of the reasons why projects drag on: energy is spent not on tasks, but on switching between them.

Kanban suggests limiting the amount of simultaneous work. This will increase your efficiency and speed up the progress of cards from “To Do” status to “Done” status. We recommend recording the number of current tasks and using this number as the initial limit. Then the limit needs to be gradually reduced:

Fix the limit. Agree with your colleagues how many tasks from each column you can do at the same time. Write these restrictions in numbers above the columns or limit the space on the board so that new cards cannot fit on it.

Prioritize tasks. After limiting the number of simultaneous work, there will be a lot of cards in the “To Do” column. To organize them, prioritization is needed. You can mark the cards with color, arrange them in a certain order, or create a rating with points. The main thing is that everyone clearly understands which tasks need to be done now and which can be postponed for a couple of days.

Important: finish the things you start, rather than taking on several new ones at the same time.

Rule 3. Control the flow of tasks

Visualization helps to monitor the speed of card advancement and the uniform workload of employees. If something is wrong, it is immediately visible on the board:

When a traffic jam appears, the principle applies: one for all, and all for one. Employees who are left idle do not sit in a corner, but help clear the rubble. For example, designers get involved in testing or drafting documents when they don’t have their own work.

This does not mean that you have to do all the work for others. Each employee himself determines how much to expand his area of responsibility. But remember that the ability to understand related fields makes you more professional.

Control your load. The work should be rhythmic. If you feel a slump, go to the board. Perhaps your colleagues are overwhelmed and need your help.

Ask for help yourself. If a traffic jam has formed in your area, there is no need to remain silent. Your overall success depends on your work, so your colleagues will definitely help. Look on the board to see who is the least busy and ask him for help.

Important: The board will show how the work is progressing. Help the Team finish it as quickly as possible.

Rule 4: Make agreements and expectations explicit.

The rules by which the Team operates must be known to everyone and at the same time change regularly. We recommend hanging the most important rules at the board or inside the columns. This is what it looks like:

Write down the rules for working with the board. Agree with your colleagues and write down under what conditions you can take on a new task, how to move it to another column, and when to consider it ready. Make the rules for promoting cards obvious.

Post the rules in a visible place. To make it easier to connect with colleagues, post rules near the board or inside speakers.

Important: agreements help the Team work harmoniously. Make them explicit.

Rule 5. Analyze the work

Regular planning meetings and analysis - mandatory requirement Kanbana. They are needed to be sure that the team is moving in the right direction and remains on schedule and on budget.

There are no format restrictions. These could be meetings, calls, or just questionnaires. Agile prioritizes live communication, so we recommend gathering around the board. Planning meetings - every day and every week, analysis - once a month. What are these meetings:

Daily planning meetings convenient to carry out next to visualization. The purpose of the meeting is to increase the speed of task flow. The team scans the board from right to left, finds problem areas and decides how to quickly complete current tasks. Anyone can make a proposal, and the Team will listen to it.

At weekly meetings the entire Team meets with management. Together they discuss speed of work and risk mitigation.

Once a month All teams that work in the company gather. The management talks about finances, and each employee understands how much his department has earned, what the company as a whole is doing and what the state of the tasks are. Teams share what resources they need.

Important: Be proactive, communicate with colleagues and offer ideas.

Rule 6: Evolve through collaborative experimentation

The Kanban team is always looking for the perfect system where cards move across the board as quickly as possible.

To do this, the Team conducts experiments: changing the amount of simultaneous work or prioritizing tasks differently. For the system to evolve, experiments must be shared, not among individual employees. You need to try new things regularly:

Suggest improvements. If the Team cannot prove that this will have a bad effect on the result of the work, an experiment is conducted.

Try one change at a time. To know exactly what effect an innovation has had, do not conduct several experiments at once. It’s better to try one idea after another and keep the most successful ones.

Important: experiments help the Team develop, don’t be afraid to try new things.

How not to forget about the right way of thinking

We've covered all six Kanban rules. They do not give specific instructions, but only guide the Team. We recommend checking yourself:

Each employee is proactive and cares about the overall success;

It helps if colleagues are stuck;

Employees regularly conduct experiments to improve the work process;

Teams discuss the company’s finances and their contribution to its performance;

The company is undergoing evolutionary changes.

David Anderson, author of the book, which was published in Russian by the MYTH publishing house, talks about what kanban is and why it’s not just boards with stickers.

Anderson was the first to use Kanban in software development (2005), he introduced agile management methods at companies such as Motorola and Microsoft, and also founded Lean Kanban University and the David J Anderson School of Management.

What is the Kanban method?

In the spring of 2005, I was lucky enough to spend a vacation in Tokyo. It was early April, when the cherry trees are in bloom. To enjoy this spectacle, I came to the Oriental Gardens at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo for the second time in my life. This is where it dawned on me: Kanban is not just about production.

On Saturday, April 9, 2005, I entered the park from the northern entrance, crossing the bridge over the moat near Takebashi Subway Station. Many Tokyo residents decided to go to the park on this sunny Sunday morning and enjoy its tranquility and the blossoming of Japanese cherry trees - sakura.

The custom of having a picnic under cherry trees when their blossoms fall is called "hanami" ( flower holiday). This is an ancient Japanese tradition - an opportunity to reflect on the beauty, fragility and short duration of life.

As my family and I were walking through the park, an elderly Japanese man approached us with a bag over his shoulder. He reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of plastic cards. He offered each of us one, although he wondered if my three-month-old daughter needed a card. But in the end he gave me the card and her. He didn’t say anything, and I, knowing Japanese poorly, also said nothing.

After spending the morning in the sun, we headed to the exit, where there was a queue for the kiosk. When she moved forward a little, I realized that these were people returning the plastic cards that were entrance tickets. I reached into my pocket and took out our cards. There was a Japanese woman in uniform at the kiosk. Between us there was a glass partition with a semicircular cutout at the counter, like in a movie theater or amusement park box office. I handed over our cards. The lady took them with her white-gloved hands and placed them in a pile with the others. No money was required. No explanation was given for why I carried white plastic cards with me for two hours from the moment I entered the park.

What kind of entrance tickets are these? Why give them out if they are free? At first I assumed it was a security issue. By counting all the returned cards, management could ensure that no one else was left inside after the park closed for the night. However, then I realized that if we're talking about about security, then this is some kind of very dubious scheme. How can they know that I was given not one card, but two? Is my three month old daughter a visitor or luggage? The system seemed too variable. Too many possibilities for error! If this were truly a security scheme, it would be doomed to failure and would produce Type I errors on a daily basis.

(By the way, I note that such a system cannot produce errors of the second type, since this would require printing additional entrance tickets. This is general useful property kanban systems)

Meanwhile, security would scour the park every night in search of lost tourists. No, it's something else.

I realized that a kanban system is being implemented in the gardens of the Imperial Palace! This insight made me realize that Kanban systems are useful for more than just manufacturing.

Looks like kanban tokens different types help in all types of management situations.

What is a kanban system?

A certain number of kanban tokens (in our case, cards), equal to the (agreed) capacity of the system, is put into circulation. One card corresponds to one element of work. Each card is a signaling mechanism. New element work can only begin if a card is available for it. This available card is attached to the work item as it passes through the system. When there are no more cards left, a new job cannot be started. Any new job must remain in the queue until the card becomes free. When a certain amount of work is completed, the card is released and put back into circulation. Now you can start working on a new element in the queue.

This mechanism is known as a pull system because new work is pulled into the system when it has sufficient capacity to do so, rather than being pushed into it on demand. The drawing system cannot become overloaded if the capacity, determined by the number of cards in circulation, is correctly determined.

In the Imperial Palace Gardens, the system is the gardens themselves, visitors are a work in progress, and capacity is determined by the number of cards in circulation. Newly arriving visitors are only granted access if tickets are available for them.

IN usual time no problems arise. However, on peak days, such as cherry blossom weekends, the park is very popular. Once all entry tickets have been issued, new visitors must wait in line in front of the bridge until previous tourists leave after returning their cards.

The Kanban system provides a simple, cheap and easy to implement method for controlling and limiting the number of visitors. This allows park staff to keep the gardens in good condition and avoid damage caused by overcrowding.

Application of Kanban in software development

Kanban quickly identifies problems that are impacting productivity and forces the team to focus on resolving them to maintain a constant flow of work.

By making quality and process issues visible, Kanban makes it possible to assess the impact of defects, constraints, variability, production flow maintenance costs, and employee throughput.

Simply limiting unfinished tasks through Kanban leads to improved work quality and productivity. The combination of streamlining work flow and improving quality helps reduce turnaround time and increases predictability and the likelihood of completing a task on time.

By establishing regular release cadences and consistent adherence to schedules, Kanban helps build trust with customers and other participants in the value chain - other departments, suppliers and dependent partners.

Through all of this, Kanban contributes to the cultural evolution of organizations. By exposing problems and focusing organizational efforts on solving them, eliminating their effects in the future, Kanban makes it easier to create a highly collaborative, trusting, empowered, and constantly improving team.

Kanban has been proven to increase user satisfaction through regular, reliable, high-quality releases of valuable functionality. It is also proven to improve productivity, quality and reduce turnaround time. In addition, there is evidence that Kanban can be a catalyst for the emergence of a more agile organization through evolutionary cultural change.

10 theses about Kanban

Kanban systems can be used in any situation by limiting the availability of work items within the system.

The Imperial Palace Gardens in Tokyo uses a kanban system to control the number of visitors to the park.
The number of Kanban cards in circulation limits the amount of unfinished tasks.
A new job is drawn into the process after the signal card is returned to circulation when the previous task is completed.
In the IT industry, we typically use a virtual kanban system because no physically existing cards are passed around to limit the number of unfinished tasks.

Post-it boards, often seen in agile software development, are not Kanban systems.

Kanban uses tools from different areas of expertise to analyze problems and find solutions.

Kanban involves incremental process improvement through the continuous identification of problems affecting productivity.

A modern definition of the Kanban method can be found online at the Limited WIP Society website.

Kanban gives permission to deviate in software development, encouraging the search for specific solutions depending on the context rather than dogmatic adherence to process definitions life cycle software development or template.

Kanban (kanban, kanban system) is a lean production line management technique (Japanese word for "signal" or "card") that uses information cards to transfer a production order from a downstream process to a previous one.

A pull system tool that instructs the production or removal (transfer) of items from one process to another. Applicable in Production System Toyota to organize the pull by informing the previous production stage to begin work. The Kanban system allows you to optimize the production capacity planning chain, starting from demand forecasting, planning production tasks and balancing/distributing these tasks across production capacities with optimization of their load.

Is integral part this production system Just-in-Time-Production (JIT), which involves the synchronous supply of the material necessary in production: receipt directly into production at the workplace at the required time, in the required quantity, with the prescribed quality and in packaging appropriate for consumption. As a means of transmitting information, tags, cards, containers, and electronic message cards (in Japanese “kanban”) are used, which move between consumers and producers according to the supermarket principle (see Diagram 1).

Diagram 1. Production management using Kanban according to the supermarket principle

The goal of the method is to implement just-in-time (JIT) production at all production lines to ensure a reduction in the size of inventories in warehouses and, despite this, guarantee high degree fulfilling orders on time.

A prerequisite for simplifying communication is the unambiguous identification of information on a specific medium, what consumers need and in what quantity. If the material is used up (or, for example, the stock has reached a minimum level), only then does the supplier ask to deliver new material. This request is issued through a kanban card, which is necessarily transported with each delivery of material and returned to the beginning for a new delivery. If the manufacturer receives the card, he begins to produce the necessary parts. When the requested quantity of parts has been produced, the Kanban card is attached to the transport equipment holder and sent via certain rules to the original place (see diagram 2). By the way, if you are interested specifically Russian experience implementation and use of the kanban system, it can be found in Almanac "Production Management" .

Scheme 2. Transporting a kanban card along with a completed order.

An example of a card is shown in Diagram 3.

Scheme 3. Example of a card with the symbols used.

Rules for using the Kanban system effectively

The President of Toyota Motor Corporation, Taiichi Ono, proposed the following rules for the effective use of kanban cards:

Each subsequent workflow removes the number of parts specified by the kanban card from the previous workflow.
The workflow at the front produces parts in quantity and sequence according to the specified card.
No part should be produced without a card. This ensures a reduction in overproduction and excess movement of goods. The number of kanban cards in circulation represents the amount of maximum inventory.
The product is always attached to the card. The card is a kind of order for the production of goods.
Defective parts are not passed on to the downstream workflow. The result is the production of completely defect-free products.
Reducing the number of cards increases their sensitivity. They reveal existing problems and make inventory control possible.

When using Kanban cards, visibility and security of the system must be guaranteed. Cards should not be lost and should not be mixed. Since there are often several different cards used in the workplace, it makes sense to implement a Kanban board on which the cards are collected. Cards arriving at the manufacturer are inserted into a control board. When the newly arrived kanban cards have reached the “start” field, all collected cards of the corresponding part number are accepted and used together for production (see Diagram 4).

Scheme 4. Example of a card with the symbols used.

More analytical and practical materials on this topic can be found in Kanban section portal libraries.