Column WIP limits… … bring about system instability. This induced instability effectively disrupts the applicability of Little’s Law. It is ironic that limiting work in process is justified by the need of getting to a stable state...
Column WIP limits… … If any improvements develop, then those improvements occur by accident and happenstance. They originate from those interventions that just happen to affect Herbie, the real constraint. The fact that they involve ...
Column WIP limits… … bring about the moving constraint syndrome. Chasing the breaking WIP limits becomes a “Whac-a-Mole Hysteric Hysteresis” game. When “constraints” (that is, bottlenecks) are constantly moving in the system, it i...
Column WIP limits… … render direction-less the evolutionary change approach enabled by Kanban. In other words, they render extremely ineffective one of Kanban’s strongest features. Strive to keep an evolutionary change approach wh...
Column WIP limits… … hinder and disrupt true flow. The team is constantly interrupted and has to engage in local fire-fights, with whatever column-of-the-day breaks its WIP limit. Fire fighting is not sustainable; especially if th...
Column WIP limits… … are effectively local optimizations. Instead of being concerned about how work flows through the entire system, team members working in specific columns become concerned about finding the “appropriate” WIP limit ...