Balance Demand Against Throughput: Kanban Recipe for Success Step 4 Sydney Limited WIP Society session

1. Balance Demand Against
Throughput
Kanban Recipe for Success: Step Four
Jason Yip
j.c.yip@computer.org
jcyip@thoughtworks.com
@jchyip
http://jchyip.blogspot.com

2. HOMEWORK CHECK

3. What step(s) did you take to start
Reducing WIP and Delivering
Often?

4. The Recipe for Success
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Focus on Quality
Reduce WIP
Deliver Often
Balance Demand Against Throughput
Prioritise
Attack Variability to Improve Predictability

5. BALANCE DEMAND AGAINST
THROUGHPUT

6. What’s wrong with this picture?

7. “…we will set the rate at which we accept
new requirements into our software
development pipe to correspond with the
rate at which we can deliver working
code…As work is delivered, we will pull new
work (or requirements) from the people
creating demand.”
David Anderson, Kanban

8. HIGHLIGHT THE BOTTLENECK
(THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS)

9. Boy scout story
• http://www.toc.tv/TV/video.php?o=p16245&ac=sus&mtr=p16245&open=excerpt&id=17#.UmIfyRa1d
F8 (4:40)

10. Theory of Constraints Five
Focusing Steps
1. Identify the constraint
2. Exploit the constraint (aka keep
constraint busy all the time)
3. Subordinate to the constraint
4. Elevate the constraint
5. Do not let inertia become the constraint
(aka goto step 1)

11. Limiting to the constraint creates
slack outside of the constraint,
which creates capacity for
improvement

12. THE PACEMAKER SETS THE PACE
(TPS)

13. “…TPS does not allow a bottleneck to set the pace of the
value stream. After all, the bottleneck may exist for any
number of problematic reasons – excessive downtime, poor
quality, long changeover times, etc. Why would I choose to let
an operation with such problems determine the way I flow my
entire value stream? Of course, I have to deal with the
problem operation (the bottleneck), and there are numerous
techniques to do so, but I will not let it dictate the pace (takt)
of my entire product flow!”
John Shook,
http://www.lean.org/Library/Shook_on_VSM_Misunderstandin
gs.pdf

14. AKA the slowest kid doesn’t set the
pace

15. “…we should help Herbie lose
weight!”
http://lssacademy.com/2007/04/19/toc-bottleneck-versus-lean-pacemaker_19/

16. YOUR FIRST PRIORITY IS NOT
FINDING BOTTLENECKS
(REINERTSEN)

17. Product development
bottlenecks are stochastic, not
deterministic

18. What do actual boy scouts do?
• Split up into two groups (aka smaller
batches)
• Integration points (stream crossings, forks
in the trail)
• Stay in contact: visual + radio
• The lead group replenishes water and
prepares camp

19. “…I always suggest reducing
batch size before adding
capacity at bottlenecks.”
Don Reinertsen, Principles of
Product Development Flow

20. All very interesting… how might
you apply this in practice?

21. HOMEWORK

23. What is the smallest step you
could take to move 1 level up
(or more)?

24. What is your plan to start that
step tomorrow?