Kanban and Lean Management

During our visits to companies, we receive questions such as "my production system is make to order ("make to order") and I am having difficulty implementing kanban. Do you have any suggestions?", or else, "we are implementing lean in the offices, and we now control basic office supplies with kanban. It has been very good. It has helped reduce inventories and eliminate shortages. Do you have any idea where else I can apply kanban in the office?".

What one notices is people's goodwill and willingness to implement a tool that serves to improve the company's management and results. But are these the right questions? Is the fundamental objective of a lean transformation to use kanban or some other tool? We note that there is often a concern with using a tool, whether it be kanban, or any other, without knowing exactly what for or for what purpose.

Just as a reminder, kanban, a Japanese word meaning signal or signboard, "is a signaling device that authorizes and gives instructions for the production or withdrawal of materials in a pull system" (Lean Lexicon, Lean Institute Brasil, p. 41). Like other lean tools, it is visual; low-cost; powerful for avoiding material shortages and making overproduction impossible (producing more than necessary, earlier or later than needed); it serves to expose problems; it directly defines what must be done, without needing the help or the definition of "bosses", or of production planning and control (PPC); it requires stability, discipline and standardization; it needs to be audited frequently, etc.

That is why, over the years, we have seen dusty kanban boards serving as decoration or being shown to visitors or even to poorly informed directors. People do not understand the need or the problem to be solved. Or they do not understand the necessary requirements. After a while, the tool fades into nothing.

Let us reproduce a dialogue between Michikazu Tanaka, an executive at a Toyota subsidiary, and Taiichi Ohno, then retired and working as a consultant for that company. After a few years implementing some concepts, techniques and tools under Ohno's supervision, Mr. Tanaka posed the following question:

"Ohno - san. I was wrong about kanban. I thought the purposes of kanban were reducing work in process, increasing productivity and exposing problems. It is very good for that, but its main objective is something more, isn't it?"

After waiting for a possible answer from Ohno (which did not come, since it is part of the sensei's method not to offer answers and to encourage people to think) and growing anxious with the silence, Tanaka continued:

"You use kanban to create positive tension in the workplace by reducing work in process, and this motivates people to do better than they ever thought they could. Isn't that what you are really aiming for?"(Quoted in Shimokawa, K. and Fujimoto, T. "The Birth of Lean". Cambridge-MA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2009, p.41. Portuguese version expected in July).

And once again, waiting for Ohno's answer made him continue reflecting on the role and the great power of a simple card.

In other words, the application of this tool helps and supports a new management system that presupposes a challenging mindset of permanent improvement, and that requires people's involvement and collaboration.

The example of kanban is just one illustration of the view that "since I have a hammer, my life boils down to looking for nails and walls". Other lean tools have often been put to the same inappropriate use, seen as an end in themselves.

We see many companies sometimes taking weeks, taking great pains to detail minutely complex current-state maps of the door-to-door information and material flow that do not stand up to a few simple questions: "But what is the problem with the current flow? Which performance indicators need to improve for the company to be more competitive? Why are we focusing on this flow and not on others? What are the priorities?". The purpose of the current-state map is to provide an understanding of the real value-adding flow, identify its main problems, define a future state to be achieved, an action plan and, fundamentally, to implement, so as to achieve the business objectives!!! Which other tools will be used, where, how and when, follow from the future state and the plan drawn up, with a systemic view.

Or else, we have the craze and proliferation of A3-format documents used for everything and by everyone, without much discernment, in which the steps of PDCA reasoning are not followed, there is no consistent analysis in the search for root causes, there is no consistency in terms of data and facts, and the consensus needed to make their implementation viable is not secured.

Value Stream Mapping, the A3 report, as well as kanban and others are extraordinary management tools that I encourage everyone to get to know better and to check their usefulness and relevance for their company and situation.

But we must prevent lean tools from taking on a life of their own and becoming detached from the company's purposes and the needs of the business. The application of lean tools can mistakenly become the very objective of the lean transformation.

We need to move quickly from the era of lean tools to the era of Lean Management, the management system that will lead companies to better results. In other articles and on other occasions we will continue discussing Lean Management, but the reflection above by Mr. Tanaka on kanban can be generalized and serves as a good starting point: how can we manage so as to create positive tension that motivates people to solve problems in an orderly way, always improving the system?

PS1. The characterization of Lean Management and the challenges of implementing it are one of the central themes of the next Lean Summit, on August 3 and 4, in São Paulo-SP. And you will also see countless lean tools.

PS2. The Senior Management Meeting: leading the lean transformation, to be held in Poços de Caldas on April 15 and 16, in partnership with Alcoa, will show in practice how Lean Management is the management system that will support the pursuit of results and the improvement of results in companies.

PS3. We continue to offer our public workshops in various regions of the country. The next ones will be Pull System and Production Leveling, on April 8 and 9, at MMaia, Eusébio-CE; Lean Logistics for Internal Supply, on April 26 and 27, at Whirpool, Joinville-SC; Making the Right Thing Happen (Hoshin Kanri), on May 6, at Correios, Rio de Janeiro-RJ; and Standardized Work, on June 14 and 15, at Jost, Porto Alegre-RS.

PS4. We are organizing a group to take part in the Lean HealthCare Transformation Summit promoted by the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org), to be held in Orlando- Florida on June 9 and 10. If you are interested, please contact Roberta ([email protected] or tel 11-55710804).