LONDON – BUSINESS – There are a lot of ways to organize your workflow today. With so many options and systems, it’s easy to get lost in the process. That’s why so many businesses are struggling with overworked, under-producing employees and excessive waste. Kanban is a method for combatting all of these things in the world of business. It’s a combination of streamlining your workflow in a context that makes sense for your productivity. It leads to a balanced approach to your workflow and team management so employees are never overworked. Finally, it keeps the most important tasks from being pushed aside so your productivity can skyrocket! Are you ready to learn how your business can benefit from this method? Let’s get started!
What is it?
The Kanban method is based on 4 main principles that are easy to understand for any business owner. First, your workflow needs to be visualized in its full context. In other words, you can’t simply look at one part of the production process on its own, you need to understand it in the context of all the other tasks.
The second principle is limiting your work in progress. A lot of businesses struggle with a never-ending list of works in progress. This is detrimental to productivity and leads to poor management of daily tasks. With so much to do, how do you know where to start? With the Kanban method, you limit the number of work that is in progress so employees aren’t overwhelmed or overworked past their limits.
Finally, the last 2 principles are all about enhancing workflow. This is simple. When one task is completed, the next highest task then becomes the next work in progress. By keeping tasks ongoing and streamlined, employees have the ability to work their best and collaborate with others. Principle 4 involves encouraging leadership across the board. With the Kanban method, everyone has the opportunity to keep improving and learning to make the system better. This method is perfect for keeping your workflow powerful every step of the way!
The Benefits
The Kanban method comes with many benefits. When implementing it, you’ll separate your workflow into 3 parts: requested, in progress, and done. This makes it easy to see how your projects and processes are developing and to see how much needs to be done. Here are some of the main benefits:
Reduced Waste
When you focus on producing many things at once, it’s easy to waste more than you need. When you produce large quantities of product without yet receiving the demand, your at risk of spending more than you need on the product you might not be able to sell. With this method, you don’t begin production until you’ve received your demand for the product, thus limiting unnecessary resources or labor.
Feedback
It’s easy to review your workflow and improve. Positive change relies on your ability to change and continue to grow. With a clear workflow process, it’s easy to conduct reviews, host meetings, and set clear goals. Because you’re only working on the production of the most important things, rather than everything, it’s easy to see how you can improve!
Boost Collaboration
It’s important for companies to have a way to collaborate. When your workflow is disorganized, it’s hard for different teams to share an understanding of daily tasks and processes. Teams might not understand how their work translates into another area of the business process, and this creates boundaries. When everything is organized under a clear, continuous model, collaboration is only natural.
The Kanban method is becoming more popular as businesses look for ways to productively organize their workflow. This method helps you to easily understand where your company is in the production process so you can make smart decisions about the future of your business.