Kanban Roles for Great Project Management

The inventory management system Kanban is utilized in just-in-time (JIT) production. The word is derived from the colorful cards used to track production and organize new shipments of parts or supplies when they get depleted. Toyota industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno created it. Since Kanban is the Japanese word for sign, the Kanban system employs visual cues to remind individuals to perform the necessary actions to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of a process. Kanban roles for Project Management, namely, Service Request Manager and Service Delivery Manager, equip teams with essential duties and responsibilities. Take Kanban System Design training and validate your proficiency in Kanban.

What is Kanban?  

The Kanban system can be conceptualized as a signal-and-response system. At each operational station, a visual indicator will tell how much a particular item is currently in demand from the supplier when that item begins to run low. Individual using the components submits the order for the quantity indicated on the Kanban, and the supplier fulfills the order. 

For instance, if an employee is bagging merchandise on a conveyor belt, a Kanban may be placed above the stack of the ten most recent bags. When the worker reaches the card, he hands it to the floor runner so that additional bags can be delivered.

If a station is farther from the supply room, Kanban may hold 15 bags, whereas a station closer to the supply room may only hold five bags. Adjustments are made to the flow of bags and positioning of cards to ensure that there are no empty stations while the conveyor belt is operational. 

Not only is the Kanban master role straightforward to execute internally in a manufacturing facility, but it also has the potential to be utilized when purchasing inventory from external vendors. The unequaled visibility provided by the Kanban system is advantageous for both the suppliers and the buyers.

One of the key Kanban roles is to limit the amount of excess inventory that can build up at any given point along the production process. Establish restrictions on the number of products permitted to wait at supply points and then progressively lower those limits when inefficiencies are identified and eliminated. When an inventory limit is exceeded, it indicates an inefficiency that must be rectified.

The cards in Kanban are color-coded according to the order of priority, allowing for the production and transport of more items before a bottleneck or shortage occurs. A two-card approach is widely employed. T-Kanban transportation cards authorize the passage of containers to the next workstation on the production line. In contrast, P-Kanban production cards authorize the workstation to make a specific number of items and order parts or materials as they are sold or consumed. Both card types are utilized on the production line. 

Kanban Roles for Project Management

There are essentially two Kanban team roles: 

• The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) 
• Service Request Manager (SRM) 

Service Delivery Manager (SDM)  

The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is responsible for increasing the efficiency of your organization's process. The Kanban lead role, also known as the flow manager, is not meant to replace the scrum master role in Kanban, despite the substantial similarities between the two positions. 

Typically, the Service Delivery Manager is accountable for the following two roles in Kanban teams: 

• To guarantee the flow of job items. 
• To facilitate the implementation of change and efforts for continual improvement. 

Regardless of whether the Kanban cadences are being utilized, your team must be vigilant regarding the efficiency of their work process and the movement of tasks and initiatives around your Kanban board. If you decide to make the job of Service Delivery Manager an official one in your organization, he/she will generally be responsible for the following:

• Conduct routine Kanban board checks and verify that no work item has been stalled for an extended period. 
• Communicate with the individual responsible for the task if it takes much longer than usual. Check to see whether there is a problem or danger and if there is, provide aid. 
• Ensure that all team members follow the policies. This may be the same as a watchdog, but it is frequently essential, particularly for Kanban-naive teams. 

If not contextualized, the concept of continual improvement can appear exceedingly abstract. The Service Delivery Manager has the potential to play a significant role in the Kaizen strategy's implementation. 

Therefore, the employee who fills this Kanban squad role must be driven by an insatiable desire to attain excellence in everything they do. As the main stakeholder in sessions such as the Service Delivery Review, he/she must be involved in directing the collaborative effort to enhance certain operations. 

Again, the responsibilities may vary based on the organization's needs, but here is a list of activities that may come under this category. 

• Collecting information about the tasks listed on the Kanban board and engaging the team in discussing them. 
• Invoking the interrogation practice until the group has identified the true origin of a particular issue. 
• Ensuring that mistakes are not repeated in a specific circumstance. 
• If the professional has adequate experience, they should instruct team members on Lean and Kanban. 

Service Request Manager (SRM)  

The Service Request Manager is an additional function or role defined in Kanban that can be delegated to a team member in the Kanban system. It functions similarly to the Kanban Scrum master role since it is accountable for discovering the demands and objectives of the clients. 

The SRM role is suitable for "middlemen" with a comprehensive understanding of the value stream of the team or organization but who do not necessarily contribute directly to the development of customer value. 

The developer of the Kanban method thought that appointing a Service Request Manager was to elevate intermediaries above the value stream. This aspect is extensively discussed in the Kanban online course. 

An SRM's primary purpose should be to operate as a risk manager while simultaneously serving as a facilitator.

The backlog is being organized, and the subsequent process step is being made easier to prioritize. Accepting responsibility for the system's policies, which frame collective decisions, increase corporate governance, preserve process uniformity, and reduce the human risk associated with a single individual. 

If you decide to implement Agile Kanban team roles, you will need to allocate this task to an employee who is closely dealing with the demands and preferences of your customer. They should have a solid awareness of the Client's requirements and expectations.

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SDM & SRM- Do They Require Separate Hiring?  

The hiring for Kanban team roles, SDM, and SRM is done as per the roles offered to them.

SRM should be held by the one who has the best understanding of both the clients and the projects currently being worked on. Depending on the frequency of the workflow, ordering tickets could be a task that occurs once per day or once per week. When it comes to the ranking of completed tickets, the Kanban team determines which criteria are "most essential." 

The role of SDM should be filled by the individual with the most comprehensive understanding of the present task being performed. 

Conclusion  

Kanban includes two different professions, neither of which is extremely common: the Service Delivery Manager and the Service Request Manager. They may be helpful at the beginning of a company's Kanban deployment. Still, if everything is done right with time, the SDM should become obsolete, and the SRM's focus should shift upstream to address customer pain points. 

If you decide to utilize them, it is vital to remember that they are enhancements to the existing responsibilities and are not always associated with formal power. You can learn more about these at KnowledgeHut Kanban online.