Getting Started with Continuous Improvement, Part 1: Planning to Improve

Organizations looking to practice true continuous improvement through Kanban need to master other key elements like increasing visibility, actively managing flow, and using Lean metrics to measure progress. The first step in this process is planning to improve, which involves gaining an accurate picture of your current state by making sure your Kanban board accurately reflects your process and is set up to collect metrics. This article recommends assessing whether your lanes, card types, and policies are accurate, and ensuring that your board is set up to collect metrics like lead time, cycle time, and throughput. The post concludes by noting that continuous improvement involves the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Adjust) process, which will be covered in the next post.