Kanban is a very powerful way to visualise and manage work. This book walks the reader through the Kanban journey by starting off with basic flow principles and working its way through variability, dependency and increasing throughput. It uses tried and tested Theory of Constraints practices to unlock the inherent power of Kanban.

The book is aimed at those who would like to manage work and not have work manage them. It provides the reader with practical tools that can be put into practice right away.

The concepts covered off are as follows:

Flow - a look at how work gets stuck and how we get it flowing.

Variability - an exploration into the negative consequences of work variability and the detrimental effects this can have on flow. We then explore techniques that help us better manage variability.

Dependency - a journey through local versus global optimisation and showing how locally optimised services may harm your improvement efforts.

Dependency and Variability - assessing the chaos that can result when combining dependent and variable services. A look at how both dependent and variable services can be controlled to provide due date predictability and improved customer service.

Throughput - an exploration into what limits our ability to produce more. An introduction to the Five Focusing Steps that will help us get more out of what we have now.

Non-Linear Processing - a demonstration of how to use the tools learned thus far to control work that does not have a simple flow path.

Choosing Work - An interesting take on how to choose work where the obvious choice may not always be the right choice.

The work as a whole combines Kanban with the Theory of Constraints that then provides visualisation and focus mechanisms to help unlock the power of Kanban and to ensure work is flowing smoothly.