PMP Assignment 3.3 - KANBAN

KANBAN - Make it Happen

KANBAN in tamil there is a word called Kaanbaen, its to say I will see. In same way KANBAN is to visualize, what we are going to do in projects. Toyota introduced KANBAN to create the cards and attaching the card in a set, which contains model of the car, equipments, tools and techniques which required to use., while conveyor travels to next person, he can understand what he needs to do. This requires a training to understand what process and to understand the card. Process is to understand, what are the tools and techniques involved in a certain card. Card coloring, how to read a card, a supervisor or a trainer to teach the employee how to read and understand a color coding and grab the information from it. Also one can segregate, the job where it is getting struck with either it is To do, Doing or Done.

KANBAN in supermarket:
Often supermarkets says that they are inventory less, so often they tend to lose the customer. With KANBAN method they can know which is the fast moving product and when to order such items. Lean method included with KANBAN is to understand the curves of demand and supply often and to fill the gaps whenever it is required. Please see the below video, to understand more,

Above one is a withdrawal KANBAN method, but that is the perfect example which suitable for supermarket operations.

KANBAN in factories
KANBAN initially introduced in Toyota Factory, in part of Just In time. To improve the efficiency of production and aligned with the market changes, Taichi Ohno's methodology of KANBAN introduced in Toyota factory, to improve the process also employees to understand the changes in the market.

This factory introduced KANBAN card which contains the information about the car model or the project they are working,

Above is an example of KANBAN card used in Factories. There used to be color coding RED, BLUE & Green, which RED is more important and critical. Also three bin system used, that One bin is for the orders placed, next bin is for inventory and third bin is for supply.

KANBAN in Information Technology
E-Kanban created to minimize the faults in manual KANBAN. But KANBAN cards used in information technology, is different from usage of E-KANBAN. After Lean methodology included in KANBAN, each step has been customized and included in KANBAN. KANBAN is largely customized,

From developing software to creating the application, KANBAN is customized as per the organization or team's requirement. Business Case to solutions one can use KANBAN methodology. Above scenario shows, how the ideas are generated and feature started, story board creation, feature acceptance and deployment.

Here if you see, Ideas, Features can be constant, Ideas to features to story board may vary also one can include more data into that, which can be relevant from time to time. At times, requirements and features may be vary, we may subject to change or alter the story board. KANBAN is fully customized, accustomed to give the path for the changes.