If you like that metaphor, I recommend Don Reinertsen’s book on
‘The Principles of Product Development FLOW/Second Generation Lean Product Development.’

Don takes examples from different realms, from manufacturing to Operating System Design to Military Operations. A very good read.

The issue that you mention is the challenge of dealing with Transaction Costs. This is where you find a significant difference between a kanban system in manufacturing and the Kanban method as explained by David Anderson for knowledge work.

Every type of work has its own type of transaction cost. For manufacturing this involves transport, order processing, setup time for a work station.

Knowledge work has hidden transaction costs: and all cost/waste in knowledge work is typically expressed in time. Time spent waiting, time spent in switching context.

Kanban will make this kind of cost very visible, and measurable. Once you measure things, you can do something.

Start small, and evolve your kanban system.

Start with what you know/do already, and take it from there.
The Kanban method scales very well.

As you suggest, it wouldn’t be for everyone. I imagine that most readers of this blog have experienced management reading about a system like this and then attempting to implement it in a completely inappropriate environment…

“At a Toyota plant, they don’t receive parts every week, they receive them every couple hours!”

There is tremendous overhead associated with making multiple parts deliveries per day (loading/unloading/delivery + all associated manpower costs). This overhead translates into a significant amount of waste. This works if you are vertically integrated and can absorb all that waste, but this seems highly implausible for anything but the largest companies with the best supply chains and strangleholds over their suppliers.

Toyota, the 9th largest manufacturer in the world, can do this. What about the little guys? This doesn’t seem like a very financially lean process to me.

Going back to kanban as a personal time management, yes, it does help highlight flaws in your workflow, but it also seems like there is a lot of overhead that never gets factored in. It strikes me as if this method really only benefits those who grossly mismanage time and have no clue how to organize their lives. For everyone else, there may be a small benefit, but the overhead digs deeply into that.

Am I missing something here?