What is Kanban?

What is Kanban?

Lean/agile for knowledge workers

Kanban has gained a lot of fans in the last decades. Originally developed for manufacturing, knowledge workers are now also taking a liking to it. For a good 20 years, Kanban has been used in various business areas of different industries.

David J. Anderson (a pioneer in the use of Lean/Kanban in knowledge work) saw the Kanban method as an approach to incremental, evolutionary process and system change for companies in knowledge work. David also founded Kanban University. Kanban University is the globally accepted certification body for recognised training and trainers.

Kanban is a change method

The principles of the Kanban method are seamlessly linked to the Agile Manifesto or the ScaledPriciples. This means that as Kanban professionals we strive for continuous improvement. This mindset can also be found in Kaizen, in the Lean movement and in the leadership understanding of the Agile movement. We change a little every day, we live "organic change".

 

The well-known "ship folding experiment" by Klaus Leopold is available on our website as a simulator. You are welcome to use this page to show the teams the advantage of Pull and WIP.

Here is the link to the simulator

Team development and New Ways of Work

Working with the Kanban method means that we, as individuals, as a group or as an organisation, break away from the ideas and structures of industrialisation. Together, we enter the age of the learning society and holistic cooperation models of knowledge workers. These models of thinking lead to new ways of thinking about work, projects and products. It also leads us to new approaches in the way we lead people.

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