Kanban Change Leadership: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement

17 THE SYSTEM DESIGN WORKSHOP

Finally, after all the intensive preparation critical for the success of a Kanban initiative, we are finally ready to design the team’s actual Kanban system using the system design workshop. This is the system design that the team will work with on a daily basis while constantly changing it. We will firm up the points from the first part of this book step-by-step using examples:

• Identifying the work item types: Which stakeholders allocate which work items and to whom are they passed on once the Kanban team has processed its work items?
• Identifying the work steps: Into what stages are the activities for the individual work item types broken down?
• Defining the capacities and WiP limits: How much work can a particular system accept while maintaining a continuous workflow?
• Determining the classes of service: How do work items differ in terms of impact and risk? Which services can be delivered and within what time frames?
• Defining the measurements: What information about the various functions of the system should be collected in order to glean potential for improvement?
• Agreeing upon an operational cadence: How frequently should meetings be held?
• Concluding the workshop: Simulation of the entire Kanban system and feedback round.

In practice, you will notice that the system design only functions smoothly if the preparatory stages have been carried out diligently. It is inevitable that questions will appear at this stage whose answers can ...