In this chapter, we have discussed how to get a greater understanding of your system and your processes. This is an integral step in the implementation of Kanban as it will provide a foundation for you as you look to improve and refine those processes. Without an in depth understanding and appreciation of what already exists, it is extremely difficult to get the most out of Kanban.
While this process can be complex, and may sometimes take longer than the time allocated here, breaking it down into three key questions makes this process much easier:
Where do ideas come from?
What and how does the process work?
What makes customers happy?
As you might have already noticed, these three questions all correspond to different stages in the process – the beginning, the middle, and the end. Each of these elements could be different in any process, so understanding what these might be and how they intersect is crucial.
We also went through how to draw the first part of a value stream map to get...