The Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is one of the most powerful inventions in terms of process visualisations I have ever met so far. Coming from the IT community, its main purpose is to show how an IT project is progressing. Those projects are usually dividable into smaller work units (i.e. functionalities, user cases or histories)…
Tag: kanban
Case Study – Kanban board for a purchasing & import department
Kanban boards were originally invented as tool to link the information flow between work cells, but in the last couple of years this concept had been adapted to steer the delivery of IT teams. However, it may also be used to facilitate the coordination efforts for a purchasing & import department, as I like to show in…
WIP limits matter
One objective of Lean should be a continuous reduction of inventory levels. But while there seems to be a common understanding about the benefits of low inventory levels in manufacturing, the folks in indirect areas often refuse to embrace the idea of WIP limits. In fact, indirect areas process so much projects, tasks and activities in…