The Kanban method has greatly
improved my productivity
Kanban is a very famous
framework which is used by software teams that practice agile software
development. Kanban methodology is more than 50 years old.
In the late 1940s Kanban
was developed by Toyota
Production System (TPS) to streamline production. The company began
optimizing its engineering processes in the same way as the supermarkets were
using to stock their shelves. Supermarkets stock products which are enough in
order to meet consumer demand, which advances the flow between the supermarket
and the consumer. As inventory levels match consumption patterns, the
supermarket gains significant efficiency in inventory management by decreasing
the amount of excess stock it must hold at any given team. At the same time,
the supermarket is able to ensure that a specific product that a customer may
need is at stock at any given time.
Toyota used the same system to the
floors of its factory, aiming to improve the huge inventory levels with the
actual consumption of materials. In order to be able to know capacity levels in
real-time on the factory floor (as well as to the suppliers), workers would
pass a card, or "kanban", between teams. For example, when some
materials that were being used on the production line finished, a “kanban” was forwarded
to the warehouse of the company, which included the necessary material, the amount
needed etc. Then the warehouse would have new materials, they would send them
to the factory floor, and after that they would send their “kanban” to the
supplier. The supplier would also have the specific material available, so as
it can be sent over to the warehouse. The signaling technology of this process
has been improved since then, but the "just in time" (JIT) manufacturing
process still exists.
The system worked extremely well, allowing
Toyota to reduce production costs while maintaining a high level of quality.
Later, Kanban became a staple at all business schools.
We can apply Kanban
principles on personal life
First, you need to visualize all your projects
and processes on a board. You can do it electronically or on a physical board.
I recommend using a PM tool like Asana or Trello. This helps you simultaneously monitor
everything you need to do and easily ascertain your next task. Instead of
juggling several tasks, you are now clear on the next bottleneck. This is
similar to Scrum Sprint
development theory.
Second, you need to keep your WIP to a minimum.
Don’t put too many things in WIP. It will stress you up. The whole point of Kanban is to increase productivity by tackling what is
necessary, one thing at a point of time.
Keep 3 categories of tasks:
1. WIP (Doing it),
2. KIV (Wait to do),
3. Done. Visualize how each task move from one category to
another.
Limit your to do list to
only things that are important
Decide aggressively which tasks should be in
KIV for whatever reasons and focus on moving WIP to done. Drop, delegate and
dismiss things that are not important.
Kanban helps you by tracking your activities
and mastering your time. Kanban is always giving you feedback about your
decisions and work, you’ll know well in advance if something needs changing.