The kanban methodology Kanban is a popular framework used by software teams practicing agile software development. It is enormously prominent among today's agile software teams, but the kanban methodology of work dates back more than 50 years. In the late 1940s Toyota began optimizing its engineering processes based on the same model that supermarkets were using to stock their shelves. Supermarkets stock just enough product to meet consumer demand, a practice that optimizes the flow between the supermarket and the consumer. Because inventory levels match consumption patterns, the supermarket gains significant efficiency in inventory management by decreasing the amount of excess stock it must hold at any given team. Meanwhile, the supermarket can still ensure that the given product a consumer needs is always in stock. When Toyota applied this same system to its factory floors, the goal was to better align their massive inventory levels with the actual consumption of material