To remain competitive and sustain success in Industry 4.0, your teams need to be informed, agile and aligned with common goals. When it comes to information sharing, visual management boards are the ideal choice.
Today, you can build dynamic visual management boards to communicate with shop floor teams and run productive performance meetings. This article dives into how visual management boards bring you closer to achieving operational excellence.
What is a visual management board?
Visual management boards are digital tools, graphics on printed paper, or whiteboards used to share real-time information about a project or process with your team. Information is shared in a way that can be understood quickly through charts and graphs.
Most visual management board designs are structured around 5 verticals; Safety, Quality, Delivery, Productivity, and Growth. This may include quantitative and qualitative data such as:
- Production targets, defect rate and other Key Performance Indicators
- Performance trends
- Safety information
- Process flow maps
- Problem-solving steps such as root cause analysis or Plan-Do-Check-Act
The best visual management boards are simple, clutter-free and continuously updated. Anyone looking at these boards should be able to understand the current stage of an operation within a few seconds.
For example, a tire manufacturer may use bar charts to display the number of units produced and the production target.
Visual management board benefits
Visual management boards have many benefits. When it comes to the manufacturing industry, it can help with:
Better communication
The human brain can process images 60,000 times faster than written text. We’re also more likely to retain pictural information. By presenting data in the form of charts, diagrams and so on, visual management boards make data easier to absorb.
When teams work in shifts, a visual management board also makes sure everyone is on the same page.
Real-time monitoring
Visual management boards can provide real-time status updates on workflows and projects. This empowers team leaders and employees to identify roadblocks and areas that may require attention.
For example, if planned production volume increases, the visual management board can inform the shop floor in real time.
Increased transparency
Displaying targets and responsibilities for everyone to see can make people take ownership of their tasks and improve accountability. It can also keep teams from dodging accountability in case a problem occurs.
Faster problem-solving
Visualizing problems makes them easier to identify. In addition, visual management boards can provide quick solutions to accelerate the problem-solving process. For example, root cause analysis boards and fishbone diagrams help you see a problem from different perspectives, identify the problem’s trigger and design a solution.
Safer workspace
Employees who do not have clear instructions on how to handle a machine are likely to make mistakes. If a machine stops working, they may experiment with solutions causing more trouble rather than solving the issue. This can be overcome with visual management boards. They can be used to display clear, standardized instructions to raise awareness about safety practices and thus reduce the risk of human error. They also provide a way to inform the shop floor about real-time safety issues.
The role of visual management board in operational excellence
Operational excellence is achievable only when a team communicates clearly and works together. This is where visual management boards play a key role.
Information sharing for smooth workflow
Team meetings are a common occurrence across all levels of hierarchy. On average, around 3 hours per week is consumed by these meetings. Sharing progress reports is a common reason to call people together for a meeting.
Visual management boards can reduce the time taken for such discussions and make them more productive.
For example, the logistics team can check on how much of the production target has been met with a glance at the board. This information helps them plan the follow-up tasks required to maintain a smooth operational workflow.
Real-time performance updates for easier progress tracking
Kanban boards are agile visual management tools that help team members and collaborators track processes.
The metrics displayed on these charts can help teams understand throughput, the number of tasks in the system at any given time, lead time and so on. They also make it easy to identify process bottlenecks.
Access to such real-time performance updates helps organizations prioritize tasks effectively and reduce idle time. For example, these visual management boards may be used to track production orders from the time an order is placed to final delivery. If an issue arises, managers can identify it quickly and take measures to fix it.
Easy data access for informed decision-making
Do you need to add a third shift this week? Is it better to repair a machine or should you buy a new one? Who do you pick for ‘worker of the month’?
There are so many decisions to be made at every level of an organization. Research shows that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that implement data-driven decision-making can achieve 6% higher profit gains as compared to their competitors.
Visual management boards make it easy to access relevant, up-to-date data to encourage data-driven decisions. The graphic representation allows decision-makers to quickly assess the situation and make decisions on the fly.
Visual indicators to encourage continuous improvement
Building a culture focused on continuous improvement is a key component of operational excellence. Visual management boards can help managers, team leaders and staff on the ground get involved in this process.
Firstly, it breaks down complex workflows into a series of easy-to-understand steps. This empowers anyone looking at the board to spot opportunities for improvement. The metrics displayed on these boards can also be used to spark discussions and brainstorming sessions.
Go further: Digitalize your visual management board
Fabriq’s visual management solution is the best way to digitize your visual management boards. It allows you to create customized, real-time dashboards for digital visual management on the shop floor. This all-in-one solution can be used to track workflow for smoother collaboration, empower autonomous problem-solving and assess productivity.
In addition, it allows teams to report operational issues and submit ideas for improvement with photographic/video field data to improve communication from the shop floor. In turn, this facilitates dynamic, data-driven decision-making and fosters continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Visual management boards play a key role in achieving operational excellence in modern manufacturing. They help maintain a standardized flow of information, encourage collaboration and facilitate data-driven decision-making.
Digitizing a visual management board with Fabriq helps you reach operational excellence. They’re easy to use and can be integrated with other Business Intelligence tools. With real-time data at their fingertips, teams can make proactive adjustments to improve efficiency and stay ahead of the competition.
