What is visual management?
Visual Management is one of the practices in Lean management. It is the practice of visualizing important information and then actively managing them to achieve desired goal. By visualizing information, it helps to quickly spot abnormalities or deviation from the standards which can then be either corrected immediately or investigate in detail to identify the root causes. By doing this, it exposes and led to the reduction one or few of the eight lean wastes and creates a smoother continuous flow in the process. This is one of the 14 principles developed by Toyota to ensure issues are not hidden. When done correctly, it creates transparency, encourages and empowers employee to drive performance.
Why visualize?
Many research has shown people process and learn faster when the information is visual rather than text. For instance, a research conducted by 3M, the company that manufactures post-it, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. In addition, according to the Social Science Research Network, about 65% of people learn through visuals. Therefore, it is paramount that information is visualized in the workplace to ensure effective and efficient communication. As the English idiom says “A picture is worth a thousand words”
What are the types of visuals?
There are three types of visuals in visual management practice. They are Visual display, Visual Controls and Visual Boards.
Visual Display is defined as the visualization information and standards. The purpose of Visual Display is to communicate non-actionable information. Examples of visual display are flow diagrams, process maps and product information
The next type of visuals is Visual Control. As the word control means, it is to influence or direct people behavior to achieve the desired process outcome. Visual Controls provide actionable information to the onlooker with the purpose to warn, stop and prevent abnormalities. It goes beyond simply displaying and tracking information, it serves a “trigger” for action. Examples of visual control are control charts, andon lights and kanbans.
The third type of visuals are called Visual Performance Board or in short Visual Board. It is a board containing all the important information such as standards and metrics that are being used by the work team in the daily management huddle.
What are the requirements for Visual Management?
For visual management practice to work effectively the following is some of the requirement we propose
- Visual management requires Standards. A standard is the agreed way or requirement for a normal condition. Without a standard, no one will when an abnormality has occurred and hence unable to correct it.
- Visual management requires simplicity. The visualized information and standards have to be easy to understand and simple. A rule of thumb is it should requires less than 30 seconds to understand
- Visual management requires a proactive management. There a mechanism in place that will actively manage abnormalities or deviation
How to deploy Visual Management?
The following are 5 basic steps for deploying visual management in any area.
- Deploy 5S to organize the work area
- Display related work information, standards and instructions at the relevant place
- Assign responsible person for each zone
- Develop and display performance metrics for each zone
- Establish regular routine to discuss performance and action plan to correct gap or resolve abnormalities
What are the benefits of Visual Management?
- Improve information sharing
- Exposes abnormalities
- Allows for quicker recovery
- Helps to eliminate wastes
- Creates transparency of performance
- Drive ownership of results
- Facilitate performance dialogue
- Creates real-time feedback to the team
- Foster employee autonomy
- Promotes continuous Improvements