In this article:
1. Introduction to the Flow Efficiency Chart
1.1. Overview
1.2. Value-added time vs. Non-value-added time
1.3. The flow efficiency formula
2. The Flow Efficiency Chart Settings
2.1. Dataset configuration
2.2. Chart controls
3. Practical Tips for Improving Flow Efficiency
The Flow Efficiency Chart lets you see the overall efficiency of your workflows for a certain period of time. To get started on the analytics in Kanbanize and how they work, you can read more about our Analytics module here.
1. Introduction to the Flow Efficiency Chart
1.1. Overview
The Flow Efficiency Chart will automatically gather data from every card that has passed through your Kanban board during the time frame of your choice to accumulate the overall flow efficiency for the period. The higher your flow efficiency is (%), the faster tasks flow through the process. Tracking flow efficiency over time helps teams evaluate their improvement efforts.
1.2. Value-added time vs. Non-value-added time
The Flow efficiency chart shows you what percentage of the time your team was actively working on versus how much time the work items were waiting. Kanban boards are meant to reflect the value stream. Value streams map both activities and the queues between activities.
How do we know if a work item is waiting? — When customizing a kanban board, you can mark certain columns as “queue” columns. When cards stay in these columns, they generate non-value-added time.
Some examples of "Queue" columns may be:
- Waiting for Approval – This type of queue column is appropriate for tasks that require approval so they can be processed (e.g. payments, promotional sales, etc.)
- Waiting for Review – This queue is a relevant stage of the workflow where work items wait to be evaluated. It is like a filter before tasks receive feedback and move forward to the completion stage or go back for improvements. It plays a crucial role in product/service quality (e.g. product development, content writing, design, etc.)
- Waiting for External Activity – This kind of column is applicable for tasks waiting for third-party actions in order to be completed. It happens often when a team communicates with other units outside of the company, e.g. partnerships, affiliate programs, etc.
On the contrary, all columns where tasks are actively worked on towards the completion of a given goal generate value-adding time. Examples of such columns include “Development,” “Verification,” “Implementation,” etc.
For example, when cards are in the "Development" column, team members are working on implementing the code. Cards in the "Verification" column indicate that the senior team member is reviewing the code. When cards reach “Implementation,” the necessary changes are uploaded to the system.
1.3. The flow efficiency formula
Kanbanize accumulates the time each card has spent along the workflow: from the initial phase until delivery and separates value-adding time and non-value-added time. At a glance, this graph tells you how efficient your process is (for example 74.9 %).
Measuring flow efficiency is done with the help of this simple formula:
Flow Efficiency[%]=Value-added Time/Lead Time*100
2. The Flow Efficiency Chart Settings
The Flow Efficiency Chart has two main settings sections:
- The Dataset configuration menu (1) on the left
- The Chart controls (2) on the right
2.1. Dataset configuration
This is where you filter the data for your chart. You must select at least one workflow and at least one of the following fields: Start Date, End Date, or Created at.
The available card filters are:
In addition to that, you have two more options:
- Ignore the cycle time configuration for the selected workflow(s) — checkmark this if you want the system to disregard the cycle time settings for the selected workflow. For example, if the cycle time configuration was set up to only count the time cards spent in Requested and In Progress, enabling this option will account for the time cards spend in all columns.
- Ignore the block time in the queue columns — checkmark this if you don't want the system to account for the time cards were blocked when in queue columns.
2.2. Chart controls
From the Chart controls located on the right side of the module, you can view and adjust the Queueing stages in your process in order to distinguish the work activity from inactivity (a.k.a. stages where cards are waiting).
The Queueing stages will be pre-selected automatically, based on the currently opened board's layout settings (via "Edit Workflow"). Once queueing stages are selected, the chart will produce the result.
Important:
The Flow Efficiency Chart allows for cycle time recalculation based on working days. When the option is selected, the graph recalculates the cycle time of each card accordingly, removing the non-working days. There is also going to be a disclaimer on top of the chart that the cycle time has excluded non-working days from the calculation.
The Calculate for work days option is only available when the Blocked days option is disabled.
If you need precise cycle and log times for internal reporting, use the Advanced search capabilities with the different chart views and widgets.
3. Practical Tips for Improving Flow Efficiency
- Improving flow efficiency starts with visualizing your Queue columns. Identify the stages and the tasks that accumulate more time and try to understand why this happens.
- Managing queue columns helps you reduce waste in your process. When you define the queue stages in your process, you will see where cards spend time waiting and you can track how much time you actually spend working. The reduction of your inactive time directly impacts your overall cycle time. You have to investigate your workflow and eliminate the causes that block or delay your work.
- Measuring and tracking the efficiency metric helps you analyze performance, identify bottlenecks, and improve your workflow. Track the flow efficiency metric over time to evaluate improvement efforts.
- Take a look at the Process Efficiency chart at least once a month. If your process efficiency is below 35% -40%, you have a lot of grounds for improvement.
- If you set a "Work in Progress" limit in the Queue columns and thus force the system to resolve cards faster, you could achieve significant improvement in cycle time and respectively your efficiency metric.
- It is a common misunderstanding that if you start working on more tasks, you will boost your efficiency result. More work in progress means more context switching and multitasking, which increases your queue time.
In Kanbanize, you can monitor flow efficiency directly on the Main dashboard with the help of a specifically designed widget that is highly customizable. You can learn more about the Process Efficiency Widget here.