Knowing what Kanban is will increase the efficiency of your business's production processes, avoid waste without prejudice, reduce costs and increase your profit margin.
Keep reading this article to learn how to optimize the task organizer of your company.
What is Kanban: Definition and Origin
Kanban is a simple yet incredibly powerful tool that can help business owners, as well as project managers to stay organized, updated, efficient and assertive, increasing predictability and customer service delivery of its services and products.
Also known as the visual management method, the term “kanban” is Japanese and was developed by Taiichi Ohno for Toyota in the 1950s. Initially, the system emerged as a support for the control and process management of labor and inventory at each stage of production.
With Kanban, Toyota had a flexible and effective “just in time” production control system that increased productivity while reducing the intensive cost of inventory. Since then, this solution has been applied to a number of niches and company sizes. The good news is that you too can benefit from it.
Based on visual cues, often colored cards (such as post-its) are placed on bulletin boards or task boards, describing activities that need to be done, those being done, and those that are completed.
When a card is moved to the to-do column, it is ready for the team to work on. It is also worth noting that, in a Kanban system, priority is defined by the order of the cards, with the first being the most important.
The differences between Kanban and Scrum
You may be wondering: Are Kanban and Scrum the same thing? Not exactly. Despite the similarities, there are particularities that differ both systems. Know how to identify them:
Functions and charges
In Kanban, the roles of team members are not defined and anyone involved in the project can develop the proposed tasks.
In Scrum, assignments are made between the Scrum Master, the Product Owner, and the development team. Therefore, Kanban is more flexible in terms of day and the team is encouraged to work collaboratively.
Delivery times
In Kanban, processes are executed and delivered in order of priority/need. Priority is defined by the order in which the tasks are listed. On the other hand, in Scrum, deliverables are divided into Sprints of a predefined time period.
News
As stated earlier, the Kanban method is more flexible compared to Scrum as changes can be made at any time throughout the project.
New work items can be easily added to the backlog and existing cards can be removed entirely based on prioritization. In contrast, changes to Scrum are only allowed after the Sprint is complete.
Productivity measurement
In Kanban, productivity is measured in terms of “cycle time”, or even the amount of time it takes to complete the entire part of a project. In Scrum, output is measured in terms of velocity through Sprints.
Work assignment and prioritization
Both Kanban and Scrum use the pull technique to allocate new work, but the same technique is used in two totally different ways in each case.
In Kanban, the team can extract new tasks only when the previous task is completed; simultaneously, new charges are pulled when there is space. On the other hand, tasks in Scrum are pulled in batches.
Extracting a new batch of tasks only occurs when the team has completed work on the current batch.
recommended applications
Both Kanban and Scrum prove to be highly efficient in making quick deliverables and easy project management. But depending on the type of project, each has its advantage.
Simply put, we can say that Kanban is best suited for projects with widely varying priorities – and which can be rearranged, while Scrum is better for teams with stable priorities, which should not vary over time.
Advantages of Kanban
If knowing what Kanban is is not enough to understand the numerous benefits of this system, such as building a sustainable competitive advantage, check out below other advantages of this method that can be applied in the most diverse segments:
Integrated communication
All team members can instantly see how tasks are moving in the process, which encourages internal communication.
Increased productivity
Understand what Kanban is and apply this system in your company is to make it more efficient in the face of increased productivity.
Not only will it be possible to identify bottlenecks, but employees will also feel less pressured by the amount of work.
less overhead
One of Kanban's main practices is to impose work-in-progress limits on each process state. When the WIP limit is reached, no new tasks can enter this state until another task leaves, preventing teams from working on too many simultaneous demands.
Greater focus on the team
You might think that multitasking makes you more efficient, however, dividing your attention might not be that beneficial. The manager also benefits from this system by having more control over the status of assignments.
Waste reduction
Kanban dramatically benefits from eliminating waste – defined as any action that uses resources without adding value – by reducing wait time – idle tasks and queue states are prime targets.
Autonomy in the task flow
Using Kanban suggests a backlog management approach that helps teams become more autonomous, while providing transparency and consistency to the decision-making process.
More mutual collaboration
Team members are constantly encouraged to work together and provide input on how to improve current processes. The method clarifies the role of each employee in the workflow and its importance for the obligations to be completed with success – and within the deadline.
more predictability
The job entry rate must match the job output rate. This will generate a stable and predictable system. Thus, the manager acquires inputs that can be used to set goals and outline assertive strategies to achieve them.
⚠️ Also check out these related articles ????
➡️ Learn the real importance of process management in companies
➡️ Understand the difference between process management and process management
➡️ Discover the 9 process management tools to use in your company
Understand the existing Kanban types and increase your business productivity
Kanban serves as a control system to help organize tasks in the process. This way you can execute and deliver activities similar to what you see on the production line. Now that you know what Kanban is, understand the variety of this method:
production kanban
In its most basic form, Kanban is divided into three columns:
- TO DO (TO DO);
- IN PROGRESS (DOING);
- DONE.
The different colors of the cards can be used to indicate the progress of the activity or the responsible department, for example. When the task is completed, the card must be moved to the next step until everything is completed.
emergency kanban
Here, Kanban interacts with exceptional situations that require instant attention and changes the order of priority in the system. Emergency cards often indicate that bottlenecks need to be fixed.
supply kanban
Although relatively uncommon, this Kanban version allows companies to include suppliers in the system. In this way, it is possible to simplify processes and reduce the waiting time between steps.
withdrawal kanban
In this model, the control system and management production flow relates to the internal movement of materials and components.
E-Kanban
Online Kanban ensures more agility and productivity in the organization's internal communication process through software spreadsheets or collaborative programs and applications.
stock kanban
Inventory Kanban is simple and very useful, used to control the size and level of inventory in markets, for example, where seasonal demand tends to fluctuate widely.
How is Kanban applied?
Finally, if you understand what Kanban is, you can now enjoy the advantages guaranteed by this methodology, such as more productivity and efficient production that optimize movement, production, task execution and delivery processes. The next step is to apply it to your business.
In short, to use this method, you need to list all the charges that need to be performed and distribute them in columns on the board. Then add tasks, which can be represented by cards or sticky notes. When an activity moves from one status to another, you need to move the card between columns.
In this way, everyone will be able to know the status of each task. Furthermore, the different types of Kanban can be used in combination to obtain an organized production environment. Choose the one that best fits your company's needs to improve flow by incorporating prosperous changes.
Want to know more about how to put this management method into practice? Click here and learn 5 tips on how to use the task organizer in Trello (which can also be used in Kanban format) efficiently.
