Kanban Imagination

I was fortunate this week to participate in a very effective 30-minute gemba kaizen. There was a problem with our kanban system in a particular cell that required getting everyone together and observing the system in operation. This was the only way to get to root cause. After much discussion it became clear that the current empty-a-bin system wasn't working and that a break-a-bin system would solve most of our problems. Interestingly, this was suggested by a team member who had no idea what a "break-a-bin" trigger was. This person simply observed the current situation and then suggested a very practical solution. It just happened to correspond to an established kanban method.

Here's what I learned from one of the most productive half hours of the week:


The Obvious
The power of going to gemba, involving the folks who actually use the system, and driving to root cause cannot be overstated. It wasn't the kanban "experts" who solved this problem. It was a team that knew and understood the issues. Prior to this event there were numerous attempts to patch the current system, and sadly a lot of blame was placed on individuals without a really penetrating look at the system itself. I understood this of course, but I think we all missed an opportunity to practice what we've come to accept. For me this was an instructive and humbling example of the 8th waste.

The Strategic
Somewhere along the line we forgot to challenge our initial assumptions. When we started down the kanban road we made a decision to use empty-a-bin triggers since it was the most logical for the vast majority of our parts. It was also decided that managing 2 different systems would be problematic, so empty-a-bin became the standard. And we somehow lost the ability to look past that. Another humbling aspect of this experience.

The Tactical
When it comes to kanban, the break-a-bin trigger can be an effective solution when you have parts with a very high package quantity, especially if the parts are widely distributed and can be consumed at a varying rate. I don't want to manage 2 different systems, but trying to force a solution that doesn't fit is worse.

If I can pack this much learning into just 30 minutes every week I can see no limit to what our team can accomplish.