## 8.8 Kanban Method Kanban is a technique used in Lean manufacturing. It means "Board" in Japanese and it’s an essential tool used in visual management. It was first used in Toyota’s Production System for cars, enabling the upstream operations to produce a part only when it was required by the downstream operations. This reduced the work in progress inventory and improved the process efficiency. Kanban provides a visual representation of the process using a board and cards, explaining what and when to produce or add a feature during the build process. In traditional push methods, inventory waste is built- up during the production process as bottleneck are experienced in the production chain. In the pull method, the last step in the production chain “tells” the previous step when it is ready to produce, and receives the work finished in the previous step. This pull is then passed back, step-by-step, to the first step. There are several benefits of using the pull method for development and using Kanban to control and visualise the production chain. Substantially fewer errors, less time to completion, decreased risk, increased visibility and transparency, and less inventory in waiting are just a few of the advantages. However, using these methods requires strict organisation and a diligent Agile Project Team (A-PCT).