Lean Mastery Collection

by Jeffrey Ries

  Daily Qty – The number of pieces utilized each day on average

  Lead Time in Days – Estimate how many days a depleted material is replenished. Always estimate more days than you think necessary to be safe.

  (1 + ss) – Stock for safety is "ss." Typically this is either 10% or 15%. In the equation, ss will appear as 0.1 or 0.15.

  Qty Inside the Container – Choose a number that will provide you with between 1 to 5 days of consumption. Sometimes the number in a box from the supplier will make sense to your production line while other times it will not. Use common sense to set an original estimate and adjust as you implement the process.

  To provide you with an example situation, imagine the following:

  Kanban # - Unknown

  Daily Qty – 60

  Lead Time in Days – 5

  (1 + ss) – 10%

  Qty Inside the Container – 15 items

  The equation will appear as such:

  Kanban # = 60 X 5 X (1 + 0.1) / 15

  The answer then reveals:

  Kanban # = 22

  This is the number of cards or carts you will use in your Kanban.

  Assign roles to team members. Make sure each role understands what is expected of them. For example, a user must understand and agree to your estimations. They must also place the signal in the designated location and participate in the process. There is also a role for the person responsible for moving signals, cards, and restarting the process. The people in the warehouse also play a critical role that you assign. They are the ones refilling containers or carts with the appropriate materials.

  This means that they need to know what to do when they get the signal. Finally, you need to assign the facilitator role to the Kanban process. You typically fill this role; however, you can hire an outside contractor or professional to fill this role or assign someone from your team. This role is present during the entire process and can assist in training and problem solving with the rest of the team. To successfully implement Kanban to your project, this role must be filled with an active participant for a minimum of 1 month.

  Basically, engaging your people and providing the tools of the Kanban system is the best way to implement a Kanban process successfully. It can resolve production problems or illustrate deficiencies in your line. It can save you time and money. But if you do not roll it out well, you can end up making stakeholders and clients unhappy, disgruntled your employees, slow production time, and cost your company money. This is why, despite the simplicity of the Kanban methodology, it is important that you take your time and launch it well. Having employees and stakeholders focused on the goal, while your line is producing quality work steadily at a fast pace, and waste is reduced is all worth it!

  Chapter 8: Implement Kanban Digital Boards for Production

  So you have decided to implement a Kanban process. Maybe it is because you are not meeting deadlines. Or maybe it is because your company has grown and your original organizational strategy no longer fits. Whatever the reason, implementing Kanban boards to help with your production is a valid solution.

  As introduced in an earlier chapter, there are a couple versions of a Kanban process you can introduce: manual or electronic. While there are great advantages to having a manual board, with post-its and dry erase markers, there is something extra special to using a digital board. Consider all the planning necessary to set up a Kanban board. You need to consider your project to alleviate your tasks each day. The concept again is simple, but the application, meaning the setup of your digital board, must be done correctly. Yes, there is a "wrong" way.

  A basic Kanban board has three lists, presented as columns, titled "to do, "doing," and "done." The cards are listed in a relevant column, the highest priority placed on the top of the list or assigned a specific color. This is your starting point. Maybe you operate a company that succeeds with this basic method, but maybe you need more. No matter your needs, the first thing you need to do is always the same: plan.

  The Planning Phase

  Setting up a board and haphazardly creating cards in random columns is not an effective strategy for using your board. The planning phase occurs before anything is added to your board. This phase can be challenging or easy, depending on your industry and company design. For example, manufacturing finds the planning phase to be easy because their process is more static, while knowledge and creative industries have a more complex planning process because the needs and items change frequently. Manufacturing creates lists for each process step and assigns a task to a person or team. For knowledge industries, it is necessary to consider the work to be completed and how they view the tasks required to complete the workflow.

  Before setting up your board, you need to plan your workflow and create your digital board. In knowledge-based industries, digital is clearly the best because it can include comments, a visual platform for all interested parties no matter their geographic location, and an easy method for adding or editing tasks.

  Below are the steps involved in the planning process:

  Reality should be used to create a map for your procedures. Model it as closely as possible. Goals that are unrealistic are counterproductive to your purpose. The job considering needs to be assigned to a trained and skilled team member. Especially in the beginning, allow your team to have a more malleable time frame. You can adjust this as you observe the process as it improves.

  Improvement in your workflow is the goal of the metrics designed for your board. Make sure what you add includes the correct metrics to accomplish this. The completion of the project will see several changes, therefore, allow for changes to occur on the board. Nothing is solidified on your board, at least not yet. This is still a planning phase, so everything is still a “work in progress.”

  Problems that often occur, like concealed work or lag time, now need to be considered. Projects often go over on time or turn a new direction because problems constantly arise. This is an important consideration. When you encounter a problem like an “on hold” task because there is a lag time from the supplier or a team member is working on another task, jot down the information. On the next project, identify the challenge concisely and clearly to help the team overcome the issue for the future.

  Simplicity on Your Board is Important

  A digital board serves one simple, primary purpose: make your life easier. Overcomplicating the content on the board is, therefore, an indirect contradiction to its purpose. Since the idea of the board and the Kanban methodology, in general, is simple, people will get on board fast, but if you keep adding content and changing tasks, they may have a hard time keeping up. Placing a lot of information on the board at one time can also overwhelm your team. It can be especially overpowering if it is new to the team. In addition, you do not want to surprise the team with tasks that were not discussed with them or columns that are unnecessary. Before adding anything new to the list, talk it over with the team, and do not have more than four columns on the board at one time.

  Over-simplicity on your Board is Dangerous

  If over complication is to be avoided, so is over-simplification. Creating a bare board means your team is less likely to show interest in it. They will not need to refer to it every day, and will then most likely forget about it. The board should provide a method for communication and teamwork on a daily basis. This means you need to organize it well and update it often. This will make sure there is always something new for your team to interact with.

  How to Set Up Your Digital Board

  Follow the steps below to successfully set up your digital Kanban board:

  Determine your Kanban software system for your digital board.

  Begin with the basic setup of your board with three lists titled “to do,” “doing,” and “done.”

  Limit your team’s WIP to prevent overwhelming them. Too many tasks occurring simultaneously can be crushing.

  Empower your team to choose the items they will work on based on their abilities. This is
the foundation of a pull system and a benefit of many of the agile methodologies, including a Kanban methodology.

  Organize the planning and prioritizing steps. Using demand to prioritize and select items is ensured when you set this up properly.

  After the initial set up of your digital board, observe the needs of your organization and adjust accordingly. Consider also looking online, for example, Kanban boards for your industry to help get ideas on how to best structure your own. Finding examples and adjusting the settings to fit the needs of your team by empowering them to produce efficiently is the plan after the initial set up.

  “Good” versus “Bad” Boards

  The setup of your board can be deemed “good” or “bad” for a variety of reasons, but no matter how it is classified, you need to understand the difference between the two. What works for one company may not be the best for another. A team can remain focused on the project vision with a process that is parallel for all the developers in a small environment. “To do” and “done” are shared amongst the team, but the “doing” lane is filled with horizontal lines. This layout allows the small team to show what steps they are individually completing in association with the entire team’s project. Structuring the board this way is great because board changes are easily made, avoiding having to mess with the “to do” and “done” sections. All the team members involved will appreciate the simple flow.

  But what if you have a large team? Trying to keep all the tasks for a large group on one board will result in an overly complicated system. All the tasks that people are working on will make the overall flow seem confusing, thus negating the reason for using a Kanban method. Thin out your process that is placed on the board and make it easy for them to use the tool. This could mean creating different boards for sub-groups or sub-teams or creating a list just for a particular action or group. Again, you need to find a solution that works for your team environment and process.

  Chapter 9: Development Tips for Your Kanban Digital Boards

  Below are the top tips for maximizing your digital Kanban board. Refer to this chapter often as you begin and continue your Kanban implementation to make sure you are "checking off" the items on the "good" list and are getting the most out of your efforts.

  The “Good” List

  To determine if your list is “good,” see if you can check off all the items on the list below. If you are missing an item, revisit your planning process to correct your board for your team. You want your digital board to check off all the items here:

  Chose to use a digital format or a physical one, based on the workflow for your company and your team’s needs.

  Have the minimum amount of columns possible. Anything over 7 is overkill.

  All your tickets apply to the present workflow but also embody the complete process.

  All your tickets are “high level,” meaning not every little task is accounted for, but rather represents a story.

  Items in your backlog have direct links to tickets.

  Name the tickets with clear and succinct labels.

  You have provided clear conditions for “Definition of To-Do” and “Definition of Done” to which your team refers ensuring they meet the expectations before moving to the next step.

  Balance your workflow through team-capacity WIP limits and plans for handling bottlenecks and “showstoppers.” Keep lists “well fed” so team members always have something to move on to next.

  Reject items that do not meet the standards. Not meeting standards can refer to items of poor quality or overly large products or outputs that do not fulfill the "definition of done."

  Assign a team member to each task in the “doing” list otherwise the task is back to “to do.”

  You have a system in place to check the “done” items are really done.

  Structuring Your Board for Your Team

  The columns on your board represent how a project reaches completion from the beginning creation phase. Each stage of this process is represented and is considered the "pipeline" of your work. A Kanban system prefers blurring the line between "stage" and "state," offering columns with the "state" of the project task, such as "doing," instead of saying something like, "analysis" or "testing."

  In a lot of settings, you will know what is happening during the state of the task depending on who is working on it, so it is unnecessary to break it into more granular "stages." Some teams; however, desire and value a few more "doing" options. These additional columns represent the needs specific to the project or team. Common examples of additional "doing" columns include:

  ● “Ready” or “Next up to be selected.”

  ● “Ready for Analysis” or “Ready to Define”

  ● “Develop” or “Implement”

  ● “Integrate” or other dependencies from the outside

  ● “Test”

  ● “Done” or “Complete”

  Adding these additional columns between “to do” and “done” may be overkill for small companies or certain structures while more complex and large organizations will appreciate the visual progression for each stage of the process.

  Notes on the Additional Columns

  "Ready of Analysis" or "Ready to Define"

  These distinctions are only useful for actions in a specific workflow close to other actions and directly needs to function before another action is taken. In many environments, this is an unnecessary column. Instead, the role of analysis should have its own board. This is because most analysis occurs prior to a products completion. Large amounts of analysis are piled in this column and create delays that are not relevant to the completion of the project. Instead, keep these actions independent, if possible.

  “Ready”

  This means you have to create a “definition of ready.” This clarifies the conditions that must be met before the task is ready to work on. Then when an item is placed on the list, it is placed according to its priority level. The highest priority items are on the top and the lowest at the bottom. Each time an item is moved to this column its priority level must be considered.

  “Doing”

  These are columns are all about development, but sometimes, especially if you do not have a “Ready to Define” column, the actions in this column require analysis to be completed. If you opt to remove the “Ready for Analysis,” include the one-off analysis requirements in this list.

  “Test”

  This is another optional column that can be a waste of time, depending on your industry. For example, companies that are regulated by outside agencies that will need to review your production before completion or deployment benefit from having this additional column. Other industries that do their own internal testing should consider removing this column and including the actions in the other activities. Often “testing” is done when a task is ready to move to the next location to make sure the product is “good” before passing it to someone else or to the next stage in the process.

  “Done” or “Complete”

  These are exactly what the terms mean: the task is finished. Your "Definition of Done" is critical at this point because it makes sure your team members only place items on this list when they meet your standards for being considered "complete." For many industries, "done" is when a product is released or is ready to be released. It does not mean it is waiting on something external to occur or the item is placed on hold. The definition will vary from business to business, but it should never provide a place to hide remaining work.

  “Integrate”

  If your company finds that it completes their activity on the task but it then has to wait for an external action, consider including the “Integrate” column. This is the location your team can place something when it is waiting for this outside condition. Sometimes this “integrate” can occur in the middle of development or at the end, so where the card moves to after “Integrate” depends on your workflow and product.

  “Relevance”

  While not a direc
t column, “relevance” refers to the items that the team is working on or planning to work on in the upcoming and near future or for the upcoming release. If it is part of a larger body of work, make sure the actions related to the part selected are on your board and nothing else, so it remains free from noise and volatility.

  Chapter 10: The Difference Between Kanban and PAR

  PAR systems are still the most common method for healthcare companies to manage medications and supplies. Hospitals are the systems that use it the most. PAR requires each item to have a level set for it. When it drops below "par", it needs to be restocked. The concept is simple; however, to determine "par," inventory conducted manually and counting in a cycle is required. The supply chain is burdened by the added manpower and cost these actions require because the activity does not add value to the system.