Visual management is an essential management technique to ensure a lean management system. Visual management uses visual clues like colors, pictures, symbols to clearly express the desired information within the workplace which is available at all the time to all the viewers.
Visual management techniques can be used at a number of workplaces including a warehouse. The primary goal of a warehouse is to hold maximum inventory with efficient and safe material handling enough storage.
Benefits of a well-managed warehouse are as follows:-
Reduced picking errors
Optimized stock control
Maximum use of space
Enhanced work productivity
Ensured compliance with health and safety regulations
With all the benefits listed above, the next question that arises in your mind must be how to implement visual management at one’s warehouse and how much time will it take to implement it?
To implement Visual control at your warehouse your basic and most important step would be educating all your employees right from a security guard and floor workers to white-collar degree-based management employees.
With a number of employees working at a warehouse, there will be people with mismatched dialects, different languages, different origins, and different cultures but what one must focus on it to create and follow one mutual language for all the employees of that organization.
This language can include directional arrows for the process, numbering machines and types of equipment like forklifts, generators, etc., numbering ground spaces for positioning, using area identification boards & informative boards for easy access to different locations, posting your company policies and work instructions, and so on.
Just to give you an idea even the plain yellow-colored lines painted in a parking lot are the difference between systematic use and chaotic use of parking space so if these lines are so powerful in a mere public parking lot, imagine what wonders they are capable of doing in your warehouse.
The time of completion of visual management isn’t necessarily linked to common parameters like No of employees, company size, Investment, Gross profit, etc. but it is linked to the complexity of the process. more moving parts in your warehouse operations mean more touch points you’ll need to cover as you implement visual management project. In general, it can take 6 months to start showing considerable results or up to 2 years if you’re working at a very complex work environment
The main obstacle to implement visual management at any facility is ‘TIME’ acknowledging, researching, communicating, procuring correct signboards, and installing them takes a considerable amount of time. Also, people reluctant to come out of their comfort zones and implementing new ideas can be an obstacle for such projects.
Visual control is one of the most important and popular concepts that are being implemented in warehouses today. Like any other lean tool, it needs to be part of a system to get the desired outcome. Visual Warehouses also supports International management techniques like 5s, Kaizen, Kanban, etc. which improves the quality, productivity and safety metrics. It also makes the ambiance of the warehouses clean and attractive, thereby, impressing the target audience.
Visualmitra LLP is a company based out of Mumbai, India offering its services to industries and business houses towards creating inspiring work cultures at the facilities. Many companies are availing services from Visualmitra LLP team which offers end to end turnkey solution towards creating inspiring work cultures at the facilities.