Evolution of Kanban: 1940-1950s
- One of the most popular principles that Toyota Automotive used to implement in its production was ‘Lean Manufacturing.’ It is a production system that aims to reduce the wastage of the resources as well as the response time from the supplier to consumers. Kanban was originally used in Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing Systems to attain production efficiency.
- After becoming the Director in the year 1959, Taiichi Ōno identified that overproduction was the cause of waste as customer demands may vary over time. He started experimenting with the different principles to improve production efficiency and started using paper cards for signaling production within his factory.
- He named this new method ‘Kanban’ in which a Kanban card was attached to each product on the shop floor in each of its sales. Once the number of Kanban cards reached a certain threshold, the production of that product was started. Hence, the main focus was to produce only what was needed.
This is how the simple Kanban Cards evolved as a management technique for the Production Systems.
History and Origin of the Kanban Methodology
Agile methodology has evolved as a modern approach to managing and delivering projects. It provides us with various methodologies like Scrum and Kanban. In this article, we will go through the history and evolution of Kanban, one of the most popular Agile Methods for Modern Software Development.
Table of Content
- What is Kanban?
- Purpose and Significance
- The Roots of Kanban: 1600s
- Origin of Kanban and Early Beginnings: 1940s
- Evolution of Kanban: 1940-1950s
- Transition to Software Development: 2003-2008
- Some Notable Contributions in Kanban: 2007-2009
- Key Principles of Kanban were Defined: Past 2010
- Conclusion