The document describes a Kanban pizza game simulation used to help participants experience Kanban concepts in an engaging way. In the game, participants work together in a simulated pizza shop to make and deliver pizzas, earning and losing points along the way. The game is divided into rounds where different Kanban concepts like work in progress limits and visualizing workflow are introduced. Participants are given feedback on their score after each round and discuss lessons to improve their process. The overall goal is for participants to iteratively apply Kanban principles to maximize their score by optimizing their collaborative pizza production and delivery workflow.

1. Kanban Pizza Game
experience Kanban for yourself
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2. Games give experience
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3. Kanban starts where you are
... normally with an existing process
Try to produce
as many as you can No fixed iterations
& avoid wasted materials & we play till I clap my hands
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4. Let’s play!
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5. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
Commonly Lead time
We use a point system
that rewards finished products
and punishes unfinished inventory
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6. Point-system to measure and optimize the flow
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings ive e
at on
= -1 pt/each n eg d
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
Finished slice pie e s
c h th
= +10 points Ea til
un
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7. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
Visualize the Limit Work In
Manage the Flow
Workflow Progress (WIP)
Where was unfinished work piling up?
Select a WIP limit
Mark your stations with the WiP Limit
Normally Lead time
Do you have a workflow?
We use a point system
Make a station for each step that rewards finished products
and punishes unfinished
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8. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
Implement Feedback Make Process Improve
Loops Policies Explicit Collaboratively
Make it easy for people to do the
right things, and do them right
Are you regularly reviewing your
work and processes? Use metrics and models
to continuously improve
Hold standups and retrospectives
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9. Visualize your workflow
& limit your work in progress
Make your workflow explicit
Limit the WiP for each station
5 min time-box
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10. Ok, let’s play again!
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11. Stop!!! - Let’s measure the points
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings ive e
at on
= -1 pt/each n eg d
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
Finished slice pie e s
c h th
= +10 points Ea til
un
agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2012.

12. Like in the real world,
Let’s extend the game some things change!
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13. New! New!! New!!!
“Pizza Speciale”
Slim green post-its as rucola
(rocket salad)
Each piece has 7 of them
Rucola burns in the oven
(Pieces have to be put on a baked pizza)
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14. Now, we produce
based on orders
Cash on Delivery: Points are given
only for fully delivered orders
Orders can be picked up
from a central defined location
Finished orders must be delivered
to another central location
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15. Ok, let’s play again!
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16. Stop!!! - Let’s measure the points
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings ive e
at on
= -1 pt/each n eg d
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
Finished slice pie e s
c h th
= +10 points Ea til
un
agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2012.

17. Ok, let’s play again!
agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2012.

18. Stop!!! - Let’s measure the points
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings ive e
at on
= -1 pt/each n eg d
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
Finished slice pie e s
c h th
= +10 points Ea til
un
agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2012.

19. Draw your workflow
Look back Draw the flow Use your materials
to the game including WIP limits to make it look nice
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20. agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2009.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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21. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
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22. Prerequisites of Kanban as a working system
Kaizen
Board Pull
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23. There are many more things to talk about
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24. Kanban Pizza Game www.agile42.com
Kanban Pizza Rules—Game Master
Kanban Pizza Game by agile42 is licensed under
by agile42 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.
Rounds
Ok, here is the deal: You are the sponsor of a Pizza Bakery Shop! Motivate
people to produce the highest value.
Round 1 Let them bake Pizza Hawaii as fast as possible and see what happens.
Tell them that on the first day, all pizza is handed out for free and you expect a
lot of customers. Do not give further instructions for the set up.
Round 2 Introduce orders (and explain the impact on the score), introduce
stations, introduce WIP limits
Further information: Round 3 Introduce the „Pizza Speciale“—attention, Ruccola burns in the oven!
Round 4 Let them self-organize
www.agile42.com/training/kanban-pizza-game
info@agile42.com Flow of the Game
- Explain them that you want to run a Pizza Shop. Read Preparations and follow
the instructions
- Ask them how many points they think that they will score, note that number.
- Tell them that the rounds will symbolize slices of the day and will not have a
fixed length
- Do about 6 mins rounds but do not tell them how long it will be
- Count the score after each round
- Do a 2 min retrospective after each round. 1 min to focus on what impeded
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them most and another 1 min to discuss how to improve that or get around

25. Ralf Kruse
Agile Coach
ralf.kruse@agile42.com
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26. Photos by
agile42:
Ralf Kruse
Martin von Weissenberg
Agile Finland:
Tampere Goes Agile 2011
Flickr:
wheels3217
quinnanya
el_floz
TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)
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