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Why We Need Visual Management…

Dec 23, 2024

Visual management is a hot topic in lean manufacturing. It is not a do-or-do-not method like kanban or SMED, but it is an underlying soft approach that just makes manufacturing easier. It won’t fundamentally change your operations, but it will smoothen a lot of problems. In this post I will go through the reasons WHY a shop floor needs visual management.

Introduction

5S crosswords puzzle

Visual management is in general to make the shop floor—or any kind of system—easily understandable. Consultants love to put markings and labels everywhere for 5S, which is closely related to visual management. And 5S is important, albeit it is not the only way to do visual management. As a reminder, 5S is as follows (Albeit 4S is more common at Toyota, and I have seen up to 8S. See How 5S Works for more.):

  1. Seiri – Sort
  2. Seiton – Systematic Arrangement, Set in Order
  3. Seiso – Shine, Sweep, Sanitize, Scrub
  4. Seiketsu – Standardize
  5. Shitsuke – Sustain, Self-Discipline
Andon Board
Andon Board

Another popular way to visualize the situation is with displays of data, like andon boards, stack lights, or dashboards. But even better is to have your machines, tools, materials, information flow, and anything else on the shop floor arranged in a way that is easy to understand. Can you place your items to clearly see what is going on. I love the example below comparing a construction van with a fire department vehicle. One is so much easier to understand than the other.

However, for visual management it helps to understand its purpose. So, let’s move on to the big question of, why do we need visual management?

5S Construction Van and Fire Engine
5S construction van and fire engine

Why Do We Need Visual Management?

As mentioned above, visual management is a way to understand the shop floor. It is not merely labeling everything or putting up data everywhere. This can help, but without a understanding of the reason behind it, it may also lead you astray. I usually try to approach visual management through a series of questions. These question build on each other. If you cannot answer one question satisfactorily, then chances are that the remaining questions will be difficult too.

Also, while some of these questions are phrased like yes/no questions, all of them are more of a range. Reality is not black or white here but many shades of gray (not 50, please 😉 ). Hence, for each question, you should ask yourself how much you see or understand. It is also not a question that can be answered equally for the entire shop floor. Maybe some things are crystal clear and understandable but others may be harder to see. And again others may be a complete mystery. The fuzzier your understanding gets, the higher the need for improved visual management.

How much can you understand the current situation?

The first question is whether you can understand the current situation. If you are on the shop floor, do you know what is going on? Which material has to go where, what tools are used when, are any tools missing, which job to do next, and so on. Pay particular attention to the information flow, since the information flow is usually much less visible than the material flow. In fact, on the shop floor, understanding the material flow is often a significant effort. But this effort is needed!

Can you see if the current situation is good?

If and only if we understand the situation on the shop floor at least a little bit, we can move to the next question. Is the current situation good? Is everything how it should be? Are there things that are NOT as they should be? Are there any orders delayed or overdue? Are there machines in trouble or stopped? Are the tools in good condition or are they broken? The easier it is to understand the current situation, the easier it is to see whether the current situation is good. Hence, visual management helps you to see where your system has problems.

There may be a tendency to see this “good or not” also as a range with many levels like okay-ish, could be better, and so on. Try to be hard on yourself. Is it good, or is it not good? Or are you just using weasel words to avoid the harsh truth and to reduce the number of issues that you should fix?

In the holy halls of pure lean philosophy, every problem should be fixed right away. And if you have the time and capacity, please do so. But, having spent extensive time on the shop floor, I know that the capacity to solve problems is usually much, MUCH less than the problems that should be solved. Here you have to prioritize your capacity and the capacity of your people. But face the truth and admit that something is not good, even if you also have to admit that something else may be a more urgent “not good” situation.

Can you see how the standard should be?

Left Hand Right Hand Lego Plane Standard
Left Hand Right Hand Lego Plane Standard

The next question focuses on situations or parts of the shop floor that are not “good.” How should it be? While the current situation is not good, how should the current situation be? Or, to use another word, what is the standard, and how does the current situation deviate from the standard? For example, a work standard on display is also a tool of visual management that shows you how the standard should be, and by observing the operators you can see if they follow the standard (i.e., if the current situation is good in that aspect). (Coincidentally, I just published my book All About Work Standards if you are interested in more about standards).

Can you see on how to get from the current situation to the desired situation?

Kaizen

Finally, if you can understand where your problem is, and can see how it should be, can you see how to get from the current situation to the desired situation? This may be the hardest part of visual management, and now starts to overlap with problem solving, reducing of waste (muda), unevenness (mura), and overburden (muri) and implementation of standards. But that is where we wanted to end up! Visual management is not a tool for its own ends. Visual management is only there to support continuous improvement (kaizen) by reducing waste, unevenness, and overburden. That is maybe the key point of this blog post. Don’t do visual management just because Toyota does it. Do visual management to help your kaizen! Now, go out, understand your shop floor, see the problems, see the target situation, create a way from the current situation to the target situation to do kaizen, and organize your industry!

P.S. This blog post was inspired by The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation by Michael and Freddy Balle, particularly page 190, albeit I modified their questions quite a bit. A entertaining and recommended book.


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Original Article: https://www.allaboutlean.com/why-visual-management/

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