What Does Kanban Mean & Why Is It Important - Rishikesh Kumar

What Does Kanban Mean & Why Is It Important

Define Kanban

The simplest way to define Kanban would be that it is a manual or digital management tool to help companies track their operations in real time and drive efficiencies at every step of the way.

Kanban is, thus, one of the most adopted project management systems today. It is a methodology greatly chosen for modern enterprises and a myriad of organizations alike.

The word ""Kanban"" is derived from the Japanese words for ""billboard"" or ""sign board."" There is a strong emphasis on visualization of work as a way to help create more productive, efficient, and collaborative teams and organizations. Kanban can make a big change for your business and have long-term benefits in every level of your organization.

What is a Kanban Board?

A Kanban board is one of the agile project management tools representing elements, with fixed delivery points visualizing work that aids in seeing a plan, tracking, and optimizing an efficiency strategy.

Some of the industries using Kanban boards include:

• Manufacturing
• Human resources
• DevOps software development
• And more.

They can be utilized by teams or individuals by systematizing and prioritizing daily work assignments. They are primarily used for work with particular needs but you can create one of your own using either a visual board or a virtual one.

Types of Kanban

Let us discuss the two most common types of kanban:

Physical Kanban Boards

To create a physical Kanban board, just divide a whiteboard or chalkboard into vertical columns and then label each column with a different stage in your project. Have your team members use color-coded sticky notes to indicate various activities that are supposed to be completed. The stickies will work as visual indicators that make up the process and allow one to track progress along with it. A physical Kanban board might work incredibly well for smaller teams or individually.

Digital Kanban Boards

A digital Kanban board may be more suitable for larger teams or dispersed/distributed teams.

Digital boards can be accessed from anywhere by everyone, thereby giving universal access to information and much more streamlined workflow to everyone. They are easy to create and also faster in terms of update compared to a physical board.

They can also provide extra information about your team''s performance at a glance: information like the ability to monitor work-in-progress limits, cumulative flow diagrams, and cycle times—so you can make more informed decisions about what your team needs to keep their workflow smooth.

How Does Kanban Work?

Kanban works on the following principles:

1. Track Workflow

Requirements to effectively visualize the workflow using Kanban include a dashboard or workflow display.

These columns on the display most often represent the sequential stages of your procedure, while the cards inside them signify specific activities.

You should understand each and every step that is involved in making any product or a system, right from its idea to its end execution process, and then you develop your workflow visualization.

Second, when you have mapped out existing processes, Kanban will help you in creating an exact visual representation of your process.

Cards go through columns or stages of the workflow when people complete their jobs, thus identifying the bottlenecks or places that need improvement.

2. Limit Work-in-Progress

The major goal is to avoid delays by limiting the number of activities in a process. Kanban normally does this by enforcing a limit on how many projects can be open at one time, and the number of deliverable tasks you''re allowed in each column is your limit, so you can move additional jobs forward only if there''s room. That places the emphasis on single-tasking, reducing both waste and inefficiency.

3. Task Management Over People Management

Kanban places value on the management of tasks as they pass through the process rather than management of individuals. This allows more autonomy by the staff in their roles and further eliminates any instances of micromanagement.

4. Clearly Communicate Policies

The teams to have a collaborative approach towards improvement must understand the process policies of Kanban. Organizations must explain the exact definition of kanban, followed by publicity of the guiding concepts of the same. It is also significant that all the people involved are readily exposed to such concepts. Introducing each member with the same goal can only strengthen the cohesiveness of a workflow. Very little is left to be misunderstood or delayed.

5. Make Collaborative Enhancements

One way Kanban helps ensure an enduring organizational change, driven by the shared understanding of the need for progress, is by the necessity of making workflow enhancements to support it. This demands a shared perception of the goals and the inspiration to work toward achieving them in a collaborative fashion. For example, staff might be more motivated and would take the initiative to work together to reduce the number of items everyone is working on at any time by implementing Kanban principles.

Voilà! There''s everything you need to know about kanban.

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