Seeing the 'sticky' signs

After being created in the motor manufacturing industry, this production management system has found its way into other business circles. Is Kanban a fad? A revolution? It's neither, but it's a really good way to get things done.

Kanban was revitalised by productivity guru David Anderson a few years ago in his book Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business, but its origins go back much further. The concept was first introduced to the West with the 1986 book Kanban Just-in Time at Toyota: Management Begins at the Workplace, translated from Japanese. It detailed a system that car manufacturer Toyota has been using for decades.

Kanban was developed in the mid-20th century by Taiichi Ohno, at the time Toyota's vice president. He was the creator of the company's production system and more widely known for Just In Time (JIT), a system geared towards reducing waste and overstock while still delivering what customers want, when they want it. JIT is a pull system ? instead of basing manufacturing on forecasts, products are created and delivered at the pace they're consumed by the customer at the end of the chain. Ohno first noticed JIT in how American supermarkets restocked their shelves and saw its potential to avoid stock overload at Toyota's workshops.

But for JIT to function, Toyota needed good workflow management. Enter Kanban, a system where cards are moved between columns on a board. The word 'kanban' is Japanese for 'signboard': it's a visual approach and getting a progress snapshot only takes a glance. Kanban has also been praised as adaptable and easy to implement. So how does it work?

Take a piece of paper and draw two parallel vertical lines on it, creating three columns. Mark the first 'To Do', the second 'Doing' and the third 'Done'. Fold and tear a second piece of paper into smaller rectangular 'cards'. Each card represents a task. These tasks will at first reside in the first 'To Do' column, but are moved into the second column when work on them begins. When done, they move to the third. To avoid task overflow, mark the 'Doing' column header with '3'. This indicates that there may not be more than three tasks in that column at any time ? it's a work in progress (WIP) limit, another Kanban attribute.

That, in essence, is Kanban: tasks on cards and columns indicating various stages of progress, with pre-determined workload limitations for the stages. The point is to have a visual workflow, while the limits stop any needless overflow or bottlenecks. Whiteboards and Post-It notes are the most common weapons of choice ? indeed, the system is often (jokingly) accused of being a sly plot to sell more of those sticky squares.

But Kanban can be implemented in any fashion, even a spreadsheet. It's incredibly organic and has been adopted by different industries. Some companies colour-code cards to denote individual aspects of a project, others may add time limits. Toyota and its peers use barcodes on cards to monitor parts manufacturing.

Kanban can be implemented on a personal level or across an entire organisation. Kanban evangelists are often accused of making it seem too simple, promising no disruption since Kanban can be introduced to just about any process. In truth, it depends heavily on a company's culture. As mentioned, Toyota invented Kanban because it slotted comfortably into JIT methodology, which is a pull system.

But it has shortfalls: JIT caused absent small components to halt entire vehicle production lines in the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Not all companies or products thrive in a Pull environment, which relies on consumer demand. In contrast, Push systems are often used to introduce new products and features that customers aren't even aware of, commonly seen as adding value by being proactive.

Yet Kanban can feasibly work on both sides of the isle. So is it right for your team? Fortunately you don't need to hire a consultant to work that out. Kanban can be implemented on just about any project, including personal workflow, so that's a good place to test the water. The internet in inundated with videos and books (such as Anderson's) that explain the concept in a few minutes. From there, it's up to the user's requirements and creativity. So Kanban may not be right for your company, but perhaps it is exactly what you need to get the job done.

First published in the October 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.