Category Archives: Kanban

Kaizen for Continuous Improvement

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Kaizen is a Japanese word with meaning “change better” or “continuous improvement”. It is method used for continuously improving business processes and value chains through small meaningful increments which over a period of time result in big improvements across the entire value chain.

Kaizen focuses on eliminating seven types of lean wastes in the value chain. Kaizen was used for almost a century by manufacturing plants of Toyota. In the past 2 decades the usage and adoption has gone up across all business industry and sectors. The Kaizen process and workflow is fully digitized with online tools and workflows (E.g., Microsoft SharePoint Workflow).

Kaizens are also referred as following,

1.     Point Kaizen – The most commonly used kaizens are referred as point kaizen. These small improvements and doesn’t need a lot of efforts to implement while still having measurable impact.

2.     System Kaizen – As the name suggests, it relates to improvements brought to life using IT system. The second most used kaizens are system kaizens which are widely used by most of the organizations.

3.     Plane Kaizen – This is the 3rd most used Kaizen which is related to the improvements made to value stream or value chain.

Kaizen Types

If we come to discussing the types of Kaizens then there are actually five types of Kaizen methodologies, keeping in mind Kaizen means improvement (change for better) so its not necessarily small changes only but they can be large ones too:

1.     Kaizen Teian – In this type of Kaizen the improvements are done bottom up instead of top down. It means improvements start at the lowest level in the organization. For this to work the Lean management mindset (continuous improvement culture) must be already well deployed across the organization. Everyone in the organizations participates and submits their improvements to improve their work, when this is done across the entire organization, it leads to large improvement in removal of lean waste. Kaizen Teian can be called as Point Kaizen as well.

2.     Kaizen Events – Kaizen events are big and planned improvements in the value chain. These improvements are done by calling for a workshop with participants from the value stream planned for improvement. Participants work through VSM (value stream mapping) workshop to identify and prepare the plan to eliminate lean wastes. Kaizen events help improve the value chain significantly by improving efficiency, effectiveness and creating superior value for the customer.

3.     Kaikaku – Kaikaku is a radical change and it focuses on business transformation through radical changes to its value stream and value chain. It is not so much about identifying lean waste and eliminating it, instead this is about changing the entire process of how the organization does the business. It requires significant planning and focused efforts to achieve it successfully. Digital Transformation can be one of the examples of Kaikaku.

For Kaikaku’s success, these 10 commandments can be used,

i.         Throw out the traditional concept of manufacturing methods.

ii.         Think of how the new method will work; not how it won’t work.

iii.         Don’t accept excuses.

iv.         Totally deny the status quo, be ready to start new.

v.         Don’t seek perfection. A 50% implementation rate is fine as long as it is done on the spot.

vi.         Correct mistakes the moment they are found.

vii.         Problems give you a chance to use your brains.

viii.         Ask “why” five times.

ix.         Ideas from ten people are better than one person’s knowledge.

x.         Kaikaku knows no limits.

Post successful implementation of Kaikaku, continuous improvements cycle can start using Kaizen.

4.     Kakushin – Kakushin is break through innovation Kaizen. Kakushin is related to switching over the entirely new way of working in the value chain. It’s related to breakthrough innovation in how the organization functions in its value stream. It is entirely changing (not transforming) the value stream of the organization. E.g., switching production line from manual or semi-manual to a production line entirely managed by robotics and robots. Kakushin requires large risk taking to transform how an organization functions and does its business (E.g., We can say that apple has undergone Kakushin. Same can be said about Tesla cars manufacturing etc.)

5.     Kaizen Blitz – Kaizen Blitz are similar to Kaizen events but in smaller scale. Kaizen blitz are achieved by calling for small workshop of few hours to a day max to identify improvements. These improvements are then immediately taken up and deployed with in 3 to 5 days. Improvements are chosen in way that they can be done quickly with speed and deliver huge improvement.

Kaizen Principles

There are 5 Kaizen Principles that make the Kaizens efficient and effective. The 5 principles are:

1.     Know your customer needs – Focused on knowing what the customer needs and is willing to pay for, any additional process activities must be removed to make it effective and efficient.

2.     Let the Kaizen Process Flow – Embed Kaizen Culture in the organization to ensure everyone is involved in cleaning up their work processes and eliminating waste from the entire value chain.

3.     Go to Gemba – Go to Gemba means visit the place where the action is to find the improvements needed.

4.     Empower People – Empower people in the team to participate, submit kaizens and to track and measure improvements using tools.

5.     Be Transparent – Be transparent in progress made and sharing the results of before and after submission of Kaizens.

Kaizen Principles

Kaizen Process Flow

Kaizens can be managed using the following simple process steps,

1.     Identify the process and area of improvement

2.     Analyze the process and its current performance

3.     Identify & document wastes (gaps)

4.     Identify & document improvements

5.     Complete Kaizen plan, review and approvals for execution

6.     Execute and Test Kaizen Changes

7.     Implement tested improvement changes

8.     Measure results and report current vs new performance gains

9.     Mark the Kaizen as completed

10.  Maintain continuous improvement

Kaizen Process Flow and Tools

Kaizen Tools (Methods and Approaches)

For making Kaizens more effective and efficient several effective methodologies and approaches must be applied. Here are the methods and approaches that can be used,

i.         The 5 W + H Model – Use 5 the Why model (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) for identifying the root cause, gaps and improvements.

ii.         Lean Wastes – Use TIMWOOD (Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over production, Over processing and Defects) waste identification to identify waste types and related improvements.

iii.         The Deming Cycle – Use Deming’s PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) cycle for the  effective execution of Kaizens.

iv.         The 5 S Framework – Use the Lean 5S framework (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke).

·       Seiri (Sort) – Sort only what is needed where is needed.

·       Seiton (Simplify) – A place for everything and everything in its place.

·       Seiso (Sweep) – Clean the workspace and keep it clean.

·       Seiketsu (Standardize) – Standardize the first three “S.”

·       Shitsuke (Sustain) – Stick to the first 4S.

v.         Ishikawa Method – Use the Ishikawa method of applying 5M’s (machine, method, material, man/mind power, and measurement/medium)

vi.         Lean Management 6P Method – Use the 6P method (Policy, Process, People, Plant, Program & Product) of Lean Management

vii.         Kanban Visualization Board – Use Kanban board for kaizen implementation actions tracking and monitoring.

Kaizen Template

A standard Kaizen template is useful for effective documentation and reviews. Here is simple sample template overview,

Kaizen Template

Kaizen Benefits

Kaizen culture and improvements have many benefits for the organization. Here is a quick overview of benefits,

i.         Elimination of waste in the value chain

ii.         Improved effectiveness and efficiency

iii.         Productivity gain across the organization

iv.         Sharing and use of best practices

v.         Costs reduction due to elimination of waste

vi.         Improved quality of outcomes and outputs

vii.         Improved customer experience

viii.         Better value creation for the customer

ix.         Improved teamwork and employee engagement

Once the whole organization starts to think about eliminating waste at their levels and finding better ways to do things, their productivity goes up significantly, quality of products/solutions/services increase, value creation for customer gets better, costs reduce and employee engagement goes up.

Kaizen is more of culture & mindset than just a framework or tool of Lean Management. Kaizen works well and result in massive improvements across the organization’s value chain delivering superior value to the customer.

Agile Kanban Framework

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Kanban system was created by Taiichi Ohno from Toyota. The purpose was to have a card system for Just in time (JIT) lean manufacturing on the product floor. The idea originated to ensure short cycles of production based on actual demand with speed and accuracy.

It involved ensuring the factories spare parts (from suppliers) and finished goods (on the shop floor and warehouse) are just in time received and processed based on actual demand. This reduced the need for stocking of parts as well as finished goods by the manufacturing units. It also reduced all the resources costs to manage all the unwanted additional resources.

The Kanban system was made in such a way that at each stage of the production line the inventory is maintained as per the capacity limits. Any ups and downs are reported and addressed to ensure the end-to-end system remains smooth. The whole system worked based on bins and card system. The bin consisted of parts and the cards represented the number of parts requested at what time at which point etc.

Kanban prescribes a strict set of rules to be adhered to ensure it functioned well. The rules were as per below,

1.     Every process must create request (Kanban) to its suppliers only when it has used all its existing supplies.

2.     Quality and Sequence of incoming requests takes precedence and production is strictly followed based on incoming requests.

3.     Without a formal request, no shipments and transports are allowed.

4.     The items transported must have the request cards attached to ensure full transparency.

5.     Quality is of utmost importance so no defective parts should be sent as they will impact the production and finished goods.

6.     If there are pending requests above the threshold limit setup for the production line then those would need to be addressed on priority as they will impact production throughput.

Over the past decade the entire Kanban systems of cards and bins have been computerised by all manufacturing plants worldwide. In many ways the manufacturing Kanban systems are also integrated to enterprise resource planning systems (ERP). The computerised Kanban systems use messages, bar codes, scanners, emails and systems.

In the electronics Kanban system the bins interact with each other through the electronic cards specifying the parts, the inventory quantity, time slot and stage etc. There are two type of Kanban systems in the manufacturing plant,

Production Kanban: The production Kanban produces a fixed amount of parts or products as per the requests received and the parts are placed the requested bin consisting the Kanban request.

Transportation Kanban: The transportation Kanban as the names suggested related to the transportation of the requested parts. It is used to ensure full container loads are transported to the requested production workstations.

In the past 7 to 8 years the Kanban framework for Agile product, project, program and portfolio management has been introduced and is used by several organizations worldwide.

The Agile Kanban Framework works with visual dashboards consisting of Agile stages and progress update. Each stage also has a threshold which when crossed, requires attention and resolution to avoid it becoming a bottleneck. The steps can be defined as follows,

Kanban Visual Dashboard

1.     We can consider the visual board as a workflow consisting of electronics cards (look like post it notes).

2.     The cards are actually user stories that need to be developed, tested and delivered.

3.     The stages and stage names can be altered as per the product, project or program team needs.

4.     Each stage (E.g. User Stories, To Do, In Progress, Testing and Done) has its own threshold based on the upper capacity of that stage resources. The stages can be also taken as columns in the swim lane of workflow (flow of work/cards).

5.     The cards are moved from one stage to the next by the respective team member or owner of the Kanban board.

6.     The board helps to visualize progress of various stories as well as track any bottlenecks requiring attention (e.g., in the Testing stage if there are more cards waiting then the Threshold, then it points the attention to resolve any issues faced to speed up testing)

7.     Threshold is nothing but maximum amount of work the respective stage team can manage. So if a stage says 5, it means the maximum number of cards (user stories or tasks) the team can manage is 5 and anything beyond that would become a bottleneck.

8.     If more than one stage crosses their maximum threshold then the work is stopped and all attention is given to the two stages to clear the bottleneck and backlog.

Here is a glance overview of Kanban principles and practices prescribed by Kanban university,

Kanban Principles by Kanban University

Kanban for Agile project management is more simpler than Scrum or any other Agile framework. This is because it works with a simple visual dashboard and requires no stipulated roles. The team decides how many stages and what roles they will need to operate the dashboard. Kanban is considered a continuous process and so it is not bound by project management principles. Instead it works on its principles of workflow with push and pull mechanism to move tasks across the board to completion.

This makes the Kanban approach effective but more relaxed and open ended while for agile there is timebox approach and speed are necessary. So to make Kanban based agile product, project and program management more effective and efficient, a hybrid approach is used by many organizations.

One such hybrid approach is called Scrumban which is mixture of Agile Scrum and Kanban Frameworks. The combination improves the efficiency of both the models. Scrumban consists of Scrum User stories, Sprint planning, Sprint reviews, along with Kanban principles of visual dashboard for progress tracking, push – pull mechanism to move tasks, work in progress threshold limits and just in time availability.

It also helps tighten the loose end on time using timebox approach. Scrumban removes all Scrum roles and follows Kanban principle of every one is considered to be at same level in the team.

Here is a quick overview showing comparison of Scrum, Kanban and Scrumban Frameworks.

Scrum Kanban Scrumban Comparison

In a similar manner, scaled agile framework (SAFE) has Kanban applied to its portfolio, program and project management stages to improve its efficiency, flexibility and visibility of progress across the enterprise.

Kanban agile project management can be electronically achieved with ease using solutions and application platforms like Jira, Trello, Monday and Kanban flow. Jira and Trello are the best platforms for online agile project management.

Kanban is widely recognised and started two to three decades back for Lean JIT (Just in time) Manufacturing. The adoption of Kanban for Agile project management is easier as many organizations already use it for their manufacturing sites. The Hybrid approach of combining Agile and Kanban Frameworks allows new opportunities for more flexibility and scalability in product, project and program deliveries.