How do you manage change and innovation in kanban vs lean environments?

1 What is kanban?

Kanban is a workflow management method that visualizes the work in progress and limits the amount of work that can be done at each stage of the process. Kanban boards, which can be physical or digital, use columns, cards, and colors to represent the different stages, tasks, and priorities of the work. The goal of kanban is to optimize the flow of work, reduce waste, and improve quality and delivery time.

2 What is lean?

Lean is a philosophy and a set of practices that aim to eliminate any activity that does not add value to the customer. Lean focuses on identifying and removing the sources of waste, such as defects, overproduction, waiting, inventory, transportation, motion, and overprocessing. Lean also emphasizes continuous improvement, customer feedback, and value stream mapping, which is a tool to analyze and improve the flow of materials and information from the source to the customer.

3 How do they compare?

Kanban and lean share some common goals and principles, such as minimizing waste, maximizing value, and delivering fast and frequent results. However, they also have some differences. Kanban is more flexible and adaptive, while lean is more prescriptive and structured. Kanban does not prescribe any specific roles, ceremonies, or artifacts, while lean follows a set of steps and tools to implement the lean principles. Additionally, Kanban is more focused on the flow of work, while lean is more focused on the value of work. Kanban measures the efficiency and effectiveness of the work process, while lean measures the customer satisfaction and the value proposition of the work output. Furthermore, Kanban is more suitable for complex and dynamic environments, while lean is more suitable for stable and predictable environments. Kanban can handle changing priorities, dependencies, and uncertainties, while lean requires a clear and stable definition of value and waste.

4 What are the benefits?

Kanban and lean offer many advantages to teams and organizations, such as improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased productivity and efficiency, enhanced collaboration and communication, and reduced costs and risks. These methods help deliver high-quality products and services that meet customer expectations, eliminate waste, optimize resources, streamline processes, foster transparency, visibility, and feedback, and prevent overproduction, rework, delays, and errors.

5 What are the challenges?

Kanban and lean offer many advantages, but they also present some challenges. Resistance to change and culture shift can be difficult to overcome, especially without the necessary support, training, and leadership. Balancing demand and capacity is also a challenge, as teams and organizations must align the work in progress with customer demand and team capacity. Dealing with complexity and uncertainty is yet another challenge, as teams and organizations must adjust and adapt their strategies and tactics to changing customer needs and market conditions. Embracing experimentation and learning is key to overcoming these challenges.

6 How do you manage change and innovation?

In order to succeed in kanban and lean environments, teams and organizations need to be agile and innovative, and to manage change and innovation effectively. To do this, involve the customer and end-user in every stage of the work process, from ideation to delivery. Gather their feedback, input, and validation to guide decisions and actions. Monitor and measure performance and impact of work, using metrics and indicators that reflect value and flow. Use data and evidence to identify and prioritize areas of improvement and innovation. Experiment and learn from failures and successes, using the plan-do-check-act cycle or the build-measure-learn loop. Test assumptions and hypotheses, validate solutions and ideas, and learn from results and feedback. Embrace and anticipate change, rather than resist or avoid it. Be open and flexible to new opportunities and challenges, and be ready and willing to adapt and evolve work.