kanban

kanban
Kanban_principles.jpg: Jean-Baptiste Waldner derivative work: Jbarta · CC BY-SA 2.5 · source
Name	Kanban
Origin	Japan
Creator	Taiichi Ohno
Year	1940s
Domains	Manufacturing, Software development, Project management

kanban

Kanban is a workflow visualization method developed for inventory control and process improvement that later adapted to knowledge work and software engineering. It emphasizes visual signaling, limiting work-in-progress, and continuous flow to reduce lead time and improve throughput. Practitioners apply kanban in contexts ranging from Toyota Production System and Just-in-Time manufacturing to Lean software development, Agile software development, and DevOps transformations.

History

Kanban originated within postwar Japanese industry as part of the Toyota Production System developed by engineers such as Taiichi Ohno and influenced by concepts from Henry Ford's mass production and the work of W. Edwards Deming. Early implementations addressed inventory signaling on assembly lines, interacting with suppliers like Denso and dealers such as Toyota Motor Corporation's domestic network. The method spread through interactions with Western managers, notable exchanges involving Nobuo Shimizu and visitors from United States Department of Defense contractors during supply-chain modernization. Later diffusion occurred via texts and conferences tied to Lean manufacturing and Total Quality Management, reaching software engineering communities engaged with Extreme Programming, Scrum, and Scaled Agile Framework discussions.

Principles and Practices

Core principles trace to visual management practices from Taiichi Ohno and quality thinkers like Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran. Key practices include visualizing workflow inspired by shop-floor signal cards used at Denso and limiting work-in-progress akin to pull systems in Just-in-Time manufacturing. Governance and evolutionary change echo ideas from W. Edwards Deming’s improvement cycles and Kaizen events promoted at organizations such as Mitsubishi and Nissan. Policies for classes of service borrow from priority systems used by FedEx and UPS in logistics, while service-level expectations align with techniques from ITIL and Service Level Agreement frameworks.

Kanban Board and Artifacts

The kanban board visually represents workflow states similar to control boards used at General Motors and signal boards at Toyota Motor Corporation plants. Columns mirror stages used in manufacturing process lines, and cards correspond to tagged items comparable to inventory cards in Just-in-Time manufacturing and ticketing in JIRA (software). Artifacts include WIP limits, swimlanes influenced by Value Stream Mapping work performed by consultants at McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group, and classes of service resembling priority bands used by American Airlines operations. Boards integrate with physical indicators like kanban cards historically used by suppliers such as Denso Corporation and digital representations used by platforms from Atlassian and Microsoft.

Implementation in Software Development

Software teams adopt kanban alongside methods from Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, and practices popularized by Martin Fowler and Kent Beck. Implementations map stages to continuous delivery pipelines used in Continuous integration and Continuous deployment toolchains like Jenkins (software), GitLab, and Travis CI. Work-in-progress constraints complement testing strategies influenced by Test-driven development and release management models used at companies like Netflix and Amazon (company). Organizational rollout often involves change agents and coaches trained through programs offered by Lean Kanban University and consultancies such as ThoughtWorks.

Metrics and Performance Measurement

Quantitative measures derive from industrial metrics used at Toyota and statistical process control methods promoted by Shewhart and W. Edwards Deming. Common metrics include lead time, cycle time, throughput, and work-in-progress, with visualizations such as cumulative flow diagrams similar to charts used in Six Sigma projects at firms like Motorola and General Electric. Service-level indicators borrow concepts from Service Level Agreement monitoring used by IBM and Microsoft Azure, while improvement initiatives often employ hypothesis-driven experiments popularized by Eric Ries in the Lean Startup movement.

Variants and Related Methods

Variants and hybrids intersect with methods and frameworks including Scrum, Scrumban, Lean software development, and Extreme Programming. Portfolio-level adaptations connect to models like Scaled Agile Framework and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), while agile-at-scale efforts reference practices described by SAFe practitioners and consultants at Accenture and Deloitte. Related approaches include visual management from Total Productive Maintenance, pull systems from Just-in-Time manufacturing, and cadence-based scheduling used by Kanban Maturity Model proponents.

Tools and Software Integration

Tooling spans digital board platforms and enterprise suites from vendors such as Atlassian (Jira Software), Trello (owned by Atlassian), Azure DevOps (by Microsoft), Asana (company), and Monday.com. Integrations tie kanban boards to continuous integration servers like Jenkins (software), version control systems like GitHub and GitLab, and observability platforms from Datadog and New Relic (company). Enterprise rollouts often leverage plugins and APIs used by ServiceNow and SAP for workflow automation and reporting.

Category:Project management methods