Kanban Revealed: Signaling Simplicity Beyond Rigid Practices

Kanban, often misunderstood as a rigid set of practices, was originally a simple visual signaling system, as exemplified by using an index card on a milk carton to indicate the need for restocking, emphasizing principles of self-explanatory simplicity over prescriptive methods.

• Kanban originally represented a visual signal to communicate needs, options, or capacity, not just a specific set of practices.
• The author presents a simple example of a Kanban system using an index card taped to the last milk carton to signal the need to restock milk.
• Good Kanban systems should be self-explanatory and as simple as possible, focusing on principles over specific practices.