What is Kanban? Kanban Explained with a Coffee Cup

There's a lot to be learned from what goes on in a Coffee Shop. You'll never look at that cup of Joe in the same way again.

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And in this video, we're going to be looking at all three aspects of kanban, with the help of a coffee machine, a Doctor Who Lego character and a coffee cup.

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141. What is Kanban? Kanban Explained with a Coffee Cup
#kanban #agile #DevelopmentThatPays

What is kanban Well, it's many things: a kanban is an object kanban is a set of principles Kanban is also an agile framework. And in this video, we're going to be looking at all three aspects of kanban, with the help of a coffee machine, a Doctor Who Lego character and a coffee cup. Three aspects of kanban --- Before we go too much further, let's disambiguate: There's Kanban the Agile framework - an alternative to Scrum. I like to write "Kanban" in this context with an uppercase K. Long before there was an uppercase K Kanban, there were a couple of lower case kanbans: kanban the thing, the object, the sign and kanban the set of principles. Today we're gonna start by talking about the latter two. And then later we'll add Kanban-the-Agile-framework back in to the brew. Talking of brew, I think I'm gonna grab myself a coffee. Coffee shop -------- Into the shop, I place my order, tap my card, and she gets on and makes my coffee. Finally, I collect my coffee. Did you see any kanban here No, neither did I. For the simple reason that there really isn't any need for any form of kanban in here. Now it's probably a good time to introduce a couple of terms that I'm gonna rely on later. What we have here is a defined process: Take my order, make my coffee and, deliver it back to me. And with just one person doing all of the steps in that defined process, we really don't have any need for any special orchestration - other than the fact that those three steps really should be done in just that order. Scaling up ----- If the coffee shop becomes a bit of a destination in the neighbourhood - and of course, I wish it every success - then it's going to feel the need to scale things up a bit. One option would be to just well, instead of having one barista in the shop, we could have two. Each doing, well, everything! And providing they can manoeuvre around each other, there's not much we need to do to make things work: still the same defined process, and the need for a little bit of orchestration. But largely it takes care of itself: the till is either available or it isn't and the coffee machine is either available or it isn't. (Actually, this fine looking machine looks like it might be capable of preparing more than one coffee at the same time.) So that's one option: two people doing all of the steps inside the defined process. Specialisation --- The coffee shop has another option for scaling things up, and that is to begin to specialise. Instead of adding a second barista, they could choose to add a dedicated order taker. (I struggled to find a good Lego character. This is apparently Doctor Who.) So yes: Doctor Who taking orders, the barista making the coffee And this arrangement - this specialisation - comes with some notable advantages. We have a dedicated order taker, who can become better at order taking over time. And we have a dedicated barista; focusing all of his attention on becoming better at making coffee. There are other advantages to this approach. (And if you can think of any, I'd love to hear from you in those comments below.) There are also disadvantages that come along with this specialisation of skills. I am going to focus on just one of those downsides: We have added some complexity to our process that wasn't there previously: our defined process now requires two people to carry it out fully. For the first time, we're having to handle the handoff between the person taking the order and the person making the coffee. Handling the handoff ---- Let's take a look at that in action. Here's the coffee shop. Let's bring in the barista. And let's bring in that Doctor Who guy. And let's give them some customers to serve. This person - who's just arrived at the coffee shop and joined the queue - that's our hero. His name is Robert. And Robert patiently waits in the queue, ready to be served. Now he's at the front of the queue. He's placing his order: coffee type, milk type, etc. And all of that information is recorded on the cup. How interesting! He's also asked for

[Developmentthatpays]

Can you think of a benefit of specialisation? Let me know in the comments below.

Can you think of a DISbenefit of specialisation? Again, let me know in the comments below.

[CGaeta]

Excelent video. Kudos to the presenter for his great style deliverying!

[dexterflodstrom]

Thank you for this fantastic video. Super well explained, while remaining entertaining. Very well done!

[tofaratiope-ewe]

This video deserves an extra 10k likes!

[CreativeThinking]

Very helpful. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Have a great weekend. ☕

[krisnaparista]

Wow you explained this better than my professor in the university! I really like the idea of having difficult concept to be translated into daily lives like this video and it's just very easy to remember and understand in the long run. I just subscribed! thanks for the video ^^

[Psych-ybzh]

good content....i just read Bill Galvin on Kanban

[touficjammoul]

your videos are perfect, they really put me out of a big trouble where I've had a huge tasksheet to do and I was struggling to understand it, this Kanban-Coffee-Shop example not only made me understand Kanban in its simplest ways, but also this Huge ex, sheet looks super easy for me now. Thank you soo much, Great work. waiting for upcomming videos.

[donaldperkins]

with dedicated order taker and dedicated barista, you limit cross contamination from potentially handling cash and/or proximity to customers. In the same way, with dedicated developers for certain aspects of coding, you can limit risks by reducing their access to systems, to those particular to their tasks.

[tarekmulla]

Ceey good explanation for Kanban, thanks .

[w.koster]

Being a barista without having customer interaction can be seen as an advantage, but I still would put it in the disadvantage box. A big advantage would be the ability to scale out (like hiring more barista's with only one (or more) order takers... a restaurant where the chef has to take the orders himself is a nice thing, but probably impractical).

[gwto]

One of the disadvantages of specialisation is the dependency or reliance of this specific resource or expertise in the value creation chain without which the process breaks down inevitably.

[Farquination]

Thank you so much for this very useful video it helped me a lot for my exam !

[niclin]

Hi, Gary. Now I have arrived in 2020! And I wonder is there any improvements from the customers’ perspective in this coffee shop example after limiting WIP? Let’s say there are several people in the order queue. They all have the same aim that is to have a coffee so that they need to wait sequentially. The total waiting time of each customer has been determined once entering the order queue. This is because each customer still need to wait in the next queue one by one after the information has been recorded. So from this point of view, I would say for the efficiency of each customer buying a coffee would not be increased or reduced no matter if WIP is limited. There is only one difference that the customers may wait in different queues, but it does not a case for the customers cuz they only consider how long they can have a coffee in their hands.

[BernieWonka]

12:53 and you are also a mind reader! I quit drinking coffee over 6 months ago, and just started to think on getting a cup tomorrow.

[noklat]

Not really relevant, but i really love the idea of french cleat bookshelves. I will absolutey be making an "inspired implentimentation" in the future

[justusbrake]

Benefits of specialization include that as each team member does something over and over they become experts. You can also hire a lesser skilled assistant at a lower wage rather than needing every team member to have gone to barista U. Specialization also helps focus. If there are 8 tasks to do total, and a couple of them are squarely in what everyone knows you're good at then it makes it easier to pick something. Automatically narrowing your focus is usually a good thing.

There are also a lot of dangers with specialization. People can block others from helping or learning, refuse to do something that it outside of the specialty. It can be less about the total business goal, and more about doing things the right way, which is great, unless you go out of business from something outside of the control of the one specialist.

I want to also pose a question about your evaluation of value. In the example is it assumed that the customer values minimized time once the order is placed. I would argue that the value is total time from entering the initial queue to order until they leave with their drink. If you could reduce total wait time by 10% by some efficiency gained by taking lots of orders at once and then cranking out production you might end up increasing wait time of the average order placed by 5%. What do you - does everyone think of this sort of consideration?

[elzbietaandrzejewska]

I like it. Very much. But I'd love to hear some pleasant music at the coffee shop 😉 Sometimes it's hard to say if sth is adventage or disadvantage. For whom? For individual, team, system? Some ideas: reaching the master level (and demanding a raise), smaller tendency to collaboration ("just doing my job"), differentiation of earnings, problems with temporary replacement in case of absence (sickness, motherhood), routine and job burnout.

[brunolopesmello]

Sorry, NOT an agile framework. It is a Method, and not an agile Method. Simply a Method.

[Snuggbyte]

I just want to say thank you for what you do for us. I was wondering if you have and videos or if you could direct me to “Scrum Master job interviews?” I am sure you are the right person with this knowledge. Thank you.