Kanban and TOC

1. Achieving Execution Excellence with Kanban & TOC –
Case study from software support (Managed Services)
© 2014 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.1 COM | CONFIDENTIAL
N. Balaji Ganesh,
Sirisha Somanchi

2. Achieving Execution Excellence
with Kanban & TOC –
Case study from software support
(Managed Services)
N. Balaji Ganesh,
Sirisha Somanchi
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3. Agenda
Background
Challenges
Implementation
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Benefits
• Why Change?
• Identifying gaps / Surfacing Bottlenecks
• Strategies to overcome bottlenecks
• Implementation plan
• Outcomes

4. Why Change?
Team
• Work throughput not meeting
customer expectations
• Sustain / improve end user
experience while reducing lead
times for work items
Organization
• High effort per ticket (2.2 P.Ds)
• Cost of Delivery reduction –
Productivity improvement
* From David Anderson’s book – Kanban (Successful
Evolutionary Change for your technology Business)
Customer
Enhance throughput of “back office”
tickets resolution from 25% to 50%
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5. Challenges
Shared team -
Capacity constraints
High WIP
Multi-tasking across
Tickets, CRs, Projects
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No defined policies to
streamline work flow /
task prioritization
Business triggers for
enhanced throughput
Bottlenecks to flow –
high rework & wait time
Lack of Work
load leveling
What to improve next ?
Uneven demand
High variation in cycle
time and effort per ticket

6. Why Kanban
http://kosmothink.com/2010/12/31/the-uncertainty-principal-or-how-to-choose-the-right-methodology/
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7. Essence of Kanban
Little’s law –Work in progress  lead time
Stop Starting, Start Finishing.
Pull - Signal from upstream to downstream process
to start work.
Only when the tide goes out do you
discover who's been swimming naked.
Warren Buffett
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8. Focus & Strategy
• Lean awareness
• Optimize Effort
• Reduce Cycle
time
• Visualize Work flow
• Demand Management
• Capacity planning
• Standardization
• Retrospective &
feedback (PDCA)
• Identify bottle necks
to flow - Limit WIP
(Kanban),
• Reduce Multi-tasking
• Analyze CFDs
• Team Workshops on lean, Kanban and TOC
• Games to demonstrate benefits of smaller batch sizes
• Participative decision making and fostering collaboration
• Core team - Action plans and timelines for implementation rigor
• Visual feedback loop
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9. TOC – How does it fit
• Visualize value stream
• Go See Yourself
• PDCA
• Back to
“Identify”
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• Knowledge
Management
• Standardization –
Policies / Definitions
• Work load levelling
Identify
Exploit
Subordinate
Repeat
Elevate
• WIP Limit
• CFD
• Buffers
• Cross Skilling
• Mistake Proofing
• Problem Management
• Automation

10. Kanban – Execution Flow
A
C
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P
D
D

11. Improving flow
Bottleneck What to Change How to change
Capacity < Inflow • Streamline demand
• Address capacity gaps in
high demand areas
• Problem Management
• Prioritization Policies / WIP limits
• Cross skilling
High WIP in
functional testing
• Improve Dependency /
Test Setup Management
• Reduce wait times
• Marshal additional
resources
• Limit upstream WIP
• Identified and communicated dependencies in
planning phase
• Automated test environment scheduling and
restoration
• Cross functional team (CFT) - Developers /
Analysts for FT.
High WIP in
Analysis phase
• Competency
Improvement
• Reduce wait times
• Work allocation
• Monitor and Expedite “Wait for Info” cases
• Dedicated Resources / Time slicing policies
• On the job mentoring / training
• Right task for the right person
• Translator for non-English language tickets
Failure load • Minimize hand-offs
• Optimal Work allocation
• Improve upstream
quality
• Standardize “Definition of Done” (DoD) /
Acceptance Criteria for CRs / Complexity
definitions
• Allocated work based on skill and complexity
• Implemented analysis / code quality
improvements, gating reviews, CFT
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12. Dealing with individual variations
Time on
Floor
Analysis
Individual
Variation
Work load
levelling
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Knowledge
Management
Collaboration -
pairing
WIP limits
Training /
Mentoring
Cross
skilling
Time
slicing

13. Visualizing Work Flow
I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
Confucius
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14. Visualizing Work flow
Legend
MFG
PM&S
FICO
SCM
Project CR Slip Template
Project Name
Project Ticket #
RICEF
EM Effort in Days
Wish Date
Functional Cons Name
Assigned to (To be Filled by Allocator)
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Slip - ZDHF/SLFN
Type ZDHF / SLFN
Ticket # APXXX
RICEF
Date of Assignment
Functional Cons Name
Assigned to (To be Filled by assignee)
Monthly CR Slip Template
Release Month
Release Ticket #
RICEF APXXX
EM Effort in Days
Wish Date
Functional Cons Name
Assigned to
Daily team huddles around the kanban board for 15-20 minutes.
3 questions asked to each person:
• What was done yesterday ?
• What is done today ?
• What are the bottlenecks and how can we resolve them ?

15. Cumulative Flow Diagram (Consolidated for all Work streams)
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Release to
customer
Waiting for
information from
customer / third
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party
• Monitor and identify WIP patterns
• Ask Why
• Brainstorm and resolve
• Go to step 1

16. Visual Trend – Resolution Time (Correction Tickets)
Visual charts for Y (resolution time) – maximum & average plotted separately for different
categories.
Week-wise performance and trends observed and analyzed from Dec 2014.
• Typical reasons for variation were:
• Competency
• Complexity
• Waiting for information cases
• Functional testing delays
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17. Skill Matrix
Consultant
UCF
Cleared
UCF Next
Level
Smart
Forms
Adobe
Forms Reports
Team member 1ABAP 3.2 ABAP 4.1 1 2 4 3 4 3 3 1 0 0 0
Team member 2ABAP 2.2 ABAP 3.1 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 1 2 3 1
Team member 3ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 1 1 4 3 4 2 4 0 2 1 0
Team member 4ABAP 1.1 ABAP 2.1 1 1 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0
Team member 5ABAP 4.1 N/A 2 0 2 2 2 4 4 1 2 2 0
Team member 6ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 3 1 3 2 3 2 0 0 1 3 2
Team member 7ABAP 2.2 ABAP 3.1 4 2 4 3 4 2 4 1 2 3 0
Team member 8ABAP 2.2 ABAP 3.2 4 2 4 3 4 3 4 1 2 3 0
Team member 9ABAP 4.1 N/A 3 2 4 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 1
Team member 10ABAP 4.1 N/A 3 2 4 2 4 4 4 2 3 2 1
Team member 11 N/A ABAP 2.1 2 2 4 2 3 2 2 0 0 0 0
Team member 12ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 1 0 3 2 2 0 2 0 2 2 0
Team member 13ABAP 1.1 ABAP 3.1 3 1 4 3 4 3 3 2 3 2 1
Team member 14ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 0 1 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Team member 15ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 1 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Team member 16ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 1 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Team member 17ABAP 2.1 ABAP 2.2 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
Project Target 3 4 10 5 6 5 8 3 3 5 0
Current status 7 1 11 7 10 7 9 1 3 5 0
Target Date 31st Jan 31st Jan
Skills
None 0
Trained 1
Experienced 2
Proficient 3
Expert 4
• Training plan identified for skill gaps
Module
Pool
Enhance
ments
Interfaces
(In/Out) Conversion Workflow EDI/ALE OOPS WebDynpro
• Internal training provided on Adobe forms and workflow
• On the job mentoring done through collaborative development
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18. Control Charts – Average Cycle Time
I-MR Chart of P3 Resolution time (Avg Days)
UC L=80.8
31.503 21.848
_
X=20.2 _
UC L=27.4
X=13.1
LC L=-40.4
LC L=-1.2
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
50
0
-50
Observation
Individual Value
31.503 21.848
UC L=74.45
__
MR=22.79
UC L=17.58
__
MR=5.38
LC L=0
LC L=0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
80
60
40
20
0
Observation
Moving Range
Control charts were used to monitor cycle
average and maximum cycle time for P2, P3
and P4 categories.
Out of control points were analyzed for
specific reasons and appropriate preventive /
corrective actions.
Observed improvement in average cycle
time for both P3 and P4 tickets
Cycle Time (Days) Before
I-MR Chart of P4 Avg Days_1 by P4 Avg Days_1
27.337 5.968
27.337 5.968
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(Wk 49 – 4)
After
(Wk 5 – 14)
P3 – Average 20.2 13.1
P4 - Average 13.9 9.23
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
30
20
10
0
-10
Observation
Individual Value
_
X=13.90 _
X=9.23
UC L=33.24
UC L=23.60
LC L=-5.45 LC L=-5.15
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
24
18
12
6
0
Observation
Moving Range
__
MR=7.27 __
MR=5.41
UC L=23.77
UC L=17.66
LC L=0 LC L=0

19. Validation of Process Improvements
Observed that process improvements are statistically significant when compared
with pre-improvement stage.
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Before : Jul – Sep 2013
After: Mar – May 2014

20. Benefits – Productivity and Cycle time
 Ticket resolution effort reduced by 62%
 83.4% increase in throughput for “back office” tickets resolved with the same team size.
 Cycle time reduction of:
 16.54% for P2 tickets
 35.14% for P3 tickets
 33.59% for P4 tickets
 Cost of delivery (Manpower costs as % of revenue) reduction from 36.8% to 25.1%.
 Enhanced people engagement / end user experience
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Trend Chart of Effort per ticket
BO Resolution Performance(Oct '13-May '14)
205 50%
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
60%
55%
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
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(p.days)
p-Days
22%
36%
33%
29%
36%
44% 43%
231
214 220
376
380
425
326
50
15%
Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14
Percentage Resolution
Month
BO Contribution
# of Tickets in BO

21. Customer Delight – CSAT Improvement
 Customer commendation – Customer commended the team for resolving 425 tickets from
offshore (BO) in April 2014 against 173 in July 2013.
 Customer PCSAT improved to 6/7 from 5/7 in FY12-13 – Customer was impressed with the
implementation of lean during his visit and would like to carry forward these tenets back to his
team.
 Annual CSAT survey - Continuous Improvement as Expectation1 with rating 6/7 and average
overall rating 6/7. % Satisfied (Top2 Box – rating 6 or 7) improved from 60% to 100%
 Benefits passed on to the Customer – Additional throughput with same team size resulted in
annualized savings of 1.3 million USD
 Customer renewed the contract 6 months in advance for 1 more year (earlier contract end date
was October 2014), extended contract value = 5.5 Mn USD ACV (from Nov’14 – Oct’15)
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22. Control / Sustenance Plan
• Continued usage of
• Kanban board
• Daily huddle around the Kanban board – 3 questions
• Resolution effort per ticket – To be monitored and sustained at 0.9 – 1.0 p.days
• Trend Chart of cycle time – Max and Avg Resolution chart plots to be continued and
monitored / analyzed for any spikes and troughs.
• Continued Inflow vs capacity analysis / cross skilling as required
• Disseminate lessons learnt to the team.
• Monthly retrospectives
• Root Cause Analysis for any exceptions
• Tickets slipping SLAs
• High cycle time
• Failure load
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23. Conclusion / Lessons Learnt
Visualize
Kanban
Board,
Swim
lanes
• Integrated Kanban
Board
• Due date
• Delay Indicators
• Zeigarnik effect
Flow
WIP
Limits
CFD
• WIP Patterns
• Surface bottlenecks
• Reduce hand-offs
• Streamline demand
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Optimize
Lean
Kaizen
• Exploit, then
elevate
• Cross functional
teams
• Reduce failure load
• Enhance capability

24. References
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25. Winning Team
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26. Thank You
Balaji Ganesh N
Sirisha Somanchi
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