A manufacturing unit’s success largely depends on having clear insights into various operations, factory floor dynamics, and performance metrics. Proper visibility and understanding can help you make informed decisions, boost productivity, and improve industrial performance. It also helps identify and resolve gaps and boost efficiencies. This is exactly what visual management facilitates.
Visual management refers to the visual representation of crucial company information in a way that all team members can comprehend without much effort. Besides increasing transparency, visual management tools drive smoother communication and collaboration as well as make it easier to track task progress. Lean visual management especially presents data intuitively and attractively, thereby simplifying analysis and interpretation.
This article delves into popular visual management tools and how you can implement them effectively in your facility.
4 Common Types of Visual Management Tools
The human brain processes images up to 60,000 times faster than when it comes to text. Also, even if your eyes see visuals for just 13 milliseconds, the brain can process them completely. Hence, advanced tools for visual factory management can increase overall site visibility and ease operational knowledge sharing.
Here are the 4 common visual management tools:
- Kanban Boards
These agile tools aid in visualizing work and detecting a process’s strengths and pitfalls. Kanban boards usually use cards to indicate work items and columns for different process stages. One of the popular visual management tools, a Kanban board helps in spotting and minimizing bottlenecks, prioritizing tasks, and monitoring their progress.
This makes the workflow smooth and seamless, enhances productivity, and reduces the number of works-in-progress items. Using Kanban boards can help you schedule production only in response to real demand, just like Toyota did in the 40s. You can also prevent over-commitment this way and optimize operations.
- Andon Systems
Another widely-used lean visual management tool, an Andon System flags production process-related issues or mistakes. The problem may also involve quality. So, this is what happens: When a production process encounters an anomaly, a sign starts glowing or audio alarms start ringing to alert both workers and managers.
With Andon (lamp in Japanese), it is possible to warn everyone on the shop floor, pause the process in question, and request manual attention. This particular technology helps solve problems swiftly, which also translates to cost savings.
Moreover, by spotting and addressing core issues at the earliest, Andon Systems prevent their recurrence. This helps keep downtime and delays to a minimum, thereby making the factory floor more productive and efficient.
- Visual Dashboards
Unlike conventional whiteboards with many limits, dynamic visual dashboards help aggregate all vital information in one place for easy comprehension, communication, and more. Customizable widgets of different kinds allow you to personalize the dashboard as well.
With visual dashboards, it is especially easy to conduct performance meetings and discuss work instructions, routines, action plans, and performance indicators. You can even visualize any gaps in performance in real time this way.
Teams can also collaborate and implement action plans better, which is essential for a culture of continuous improvement. Visual dashboards also make it easy to manage and analyze data points on operational excellence and do the needful in improvement areas.
- Signs, Floor Markings, Shadow Boards
These are simple yet highly effective tools that facilitate visual management in different ways:
- Signs
Big panels, badges, and labels with clearly written warnings or information help workers to follow guidelines, instructions, and directions easily. Signs are usually bright and might include certain images or logos to ensure fast identification and comprehension. Signage eliminates the need for verbal interaction to a large extent and yet optimizes the workflow. They help define areas meant for different work stages and also indicate dangerous zones, thereby ensuring your manufacturing unit’s safety.
- Floor Markings
With color-coded tapes, it is possible to demarcate lanes for vehicles, walkways, zones for storing materials, high-risk areas and more. Simply put, floor markings help guide the movement of people and materials efficiently. Everything and everyone stays in their place and there is minimal risk of accidents and injuries.
- Shadow Boards
These boards are vibrant and made for hanging tools against designated shadows, outlines, or images. This means, workers can quickly, easily, and accurately organize tools based on visual cues. It is also convenient to spot missing tools or those in use on such boards. Hence, shadow boards provide more clarity about various operations and also contribute to the safety culture.
How to Implement Visual Management in Your Facility
By providing the shop floor’s overview, lean visual management enables managers and site directors to efficiently manage tasks and performance for better outcomes. And to implement the same, adopt these steps.
- Define Goals and KPIs
Depending on what your staff finds useful, define the operational KPIs. However, instead of working with too many indicators, try to focus on quality for more meaningful visualization. For instance, you can define 5 easy-to-understand KPIs like quality, safety, delivery, people, and cost. Note that monitoring these in real time should help you solve problems and make decisions more easily.
- Finalize the Environment with Your Staff’s Help
At the workstation level, configure and customize the environment on the visual management tool with your staff’s involvement. It might involve choosing the individual in charge of data updates, finalizing KPIs, and so on. After setting up your environment the way you want, run it to test efficacy and identify any issues.
Also encourage your staff to share their feedback, observations, and opinions based on daily usage. This will make them feel engaged with the tool and do their bit for sustaining continuous improvements.
- Pick Visual Management Screen Locations Carefully
First list all possible locations for placing the visual management screens and then zero in on the ones that are most strategic. Make sure the workers don’t face any readability problems or distractions while viewing the screens’ information.
A massive screen where the production line ends can be a wise idea, for example. Site directors and managers should also be able to view the screens on their mobile gadgets for hassle-free field tours and regular audits.
- Involve the Staff in Continuous Improvement
Visual management powered by digital innovations is not just apt for displaying and communicating vital data. It can also enhance the continuous improvement approach of your organization. Remember that those working on the factory floor are the ones who make any changes truly happen. Hence, the transformation must revolve around them.
So, for starters, get team leaders together for a meeting and note possible areas of improvement. Find out if employees are wasting a lot of time on tasks that lack value addition. Are you currently addressing their problems effectively? Does your staff seem less committed and engaged? Also look into your data consolidation and capitalization capabilities at present.
All this will help in understanding employee expectations and sparking transformation. You will be able to devise an efficient visual management strategy.
- Boost Collaboration by Connecting Visual Management Tools
By getting visual management tools together, you can create a central repository for all important data points. Besides information retention, this can augment interaction and teamwork. The barriers in between teams will dissolve gradually when everyone understands how their work impacts others. Meetings will be more transparent as awareness about individual progress improves.
Visual representations like charts, graphs, images, etc. will ease and accelerate information digestion and comprehension. Moreover, with faster exchange of information in real time, you will be able to solve issues faster.
Visual Management: Make Work Visible, Make Work Better
Lean visual management arms manufacturing companies with better visibility into operations as well as employee performance and overall dynamics of the factory floor. Relevant tools like Kanban Boards, visual dashboards, and Andon Systems ease crucial data presentation and analysis. Consequently, you get to make better decisions on task prioritization, workflow optimization, and productivity and efficiency improvement. Communication, collaboration, employee engagement, and problem-solving benefit too, leading to better overall outcomes and a stronger bottom line.
And when it comes to the implementation of visual management, fabriq handles it end-to-end. They help you with defining KPIs and objectives, customizing your environment, and choosing strategic locations for screen placement. They also involve all stakeholders for continuous improvement and drive collaboration by connecting visual management tools.
Get in touch for a demo if you wish to find out more or get started.
