Harm No. 7 of Kanban Column WIP Limits: They are Waste

Column WIP Limits are harmful!
1 minute read

Column WIP limits…

… are a waste of effort and resources. Because only one column can be the constraint, it follows that the majority of interventions (on the other columns!) are actually wasted.

“Fixing” a non-constraint is waste. Fixing the constraint (Herbie!) is the real gain.

This is completely unnecessary, considering that those bottlenecks were created artificially.

(Note well, there is a distinction to be made between a bottleneck and a constraint!).

Quoted from: Tame the Flow.

Published : September 30, 2013
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