Translations:Tableros kanban: operativa/5/en

The four operations patterns

1. Multi-skilled team + free-order work (no sequence)

The simplest environment to manage. Anyone can do any task, and tasks can be picked up in any order. To resolve overload or idle time problems, adjusting the team's sizing or optimizing the system is enough.

2. Team of specialists + free-order work

Specialization makes resolving bottlenecks and idle time more complex. The possible strategies are:

• Sizing: adjust the number of people qualified for that type of task, the number of committed tasks of that type, or the customer response time.
• Optimization: improve the process for carrying out the type of task that is causing the bottleneck.

In this configuration, idle time signals problems with demand sizing or its uneven distribution.

3. Multi-skilled team + sequential work

Dependency between tasks is the main cause of strain in the flow. The first line of improvement is adjusting the WIP limit for each phase, before considering changes to the team's sizing.