Visual management is yet another popular but extremely important subject in lean. However if it’s done accurately then it’s very helpful but when it’s done incorrectly then this may be highly wasteful and embarrassing when managing a shop floor or office floor. So in this blog we’ll be knowing some useful prospects on why every industrial sector required Visual Management system.
Visual management involves more than just drawing lines on the shop floor. If you are in an unwanted area and there is no appropriate information then you probably are in danger of being a victim of an injury or in danger of getting lost. That’s the reason why implementing Visual management is required. The goal of visual management is simple is that to make a situation understandable just by looking at it. The objective is to learn as much as you can in the least amount of time and observation. Incorporating visual management into the concept of visiting a work environment works very well.
Importance of Visual Management System
Do you know that a good visual management system can help you reach the concepts of “Employee Engagement” and “Continuous Improvement”? It has the potential to create ownership of objectives and a desire for development that would not otherwise exist.
It also eliminates the gap between management and lower levels of employees as it welcomes transparency and this is what we all look to have in a company. The firm as a whole is aligned around shared visual management, with no information being held back and everyone working toward the same goals.
- Visual Management has its own Perks like few of those include
- Work is actually done!
- Ensures there are ‘visual thinkers’ in the company
- The workplace’s physical environment “speaks”
- A result oriented Improvement
- Better Safety and Security
- Teamwork
Your workforce will be underutilised or overworked professionally and will either depart when given the option or stay and do progressively less work if they are not involved in your company’s continual improvement. Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t because they’re sluggish or demand special treatment. It’s because they’re not being given the opportunity to make the impact they know they’re capable of.
If your team genuinely understands what identity business requires, what the team needs, and what they need personally only then they will be aware of what they can and cannot do to assist others. Remember, ‘Workflow compliance’ is required for your visual controls. Therefore, instead of concentrating solely on your work, your visual controls should constantly consider ways to share your knowledge with other units and to work together with them when necessary. Any company should be aware that there is no dependency. You lose time, money, and expertise as soon as you use the word “dependence.”
Main Components of Visual Management System
Through a visual management system anyone working in the workplace or an visitor should be able to quickly assess the present situation. This should bring the workplace to the point where all issues, irregularities, and waste are detected right away. When issues and deviations are evident then quick corrective action can be taken to boost the processes’ efficiency and effectiveness.
Now we all know what can we achieve through a visual management system, but let us first know what visual tools can form a proper system. There are wide variety of visual controls used in visual management to make all workplace aspects and operations more obvious visually.
Three crucial criteria should always be specified in your visual controls.
1] It should be information oriented – It should represent identity, client’s expectations and goal of the company.
2] It should be instructive – SOPs, information about the job, and tasks connected to maintaining and organizing work are all communicated through instructions.
3] It should be Result oriented – Display the status of processes, projects, production, productivity, and performance in a goal-oriented manner.
Let us have a look on number of tools that form a Visual Management System.
1] Safety Posters
To maintain the facility safe and environmentally friendly, safety posters are crucial. Safety posters can be of many types like Fire Safety posters, Chemical Safety posters, Electrical Safety posters etc. Through these one can eliminate risky behaviours and conditions, and positively contribute to the decline in injuries, incidents, near-misses, and occupational diseases.
When we talk about posters, it should be represented with some cartoon images and less text so that people understand what can happen if they don’t follow or behave safely. Also it’s essential to correctly identify the locations of first aid facilities, safety showers, eye wash stations, and stations for personal protective equipment. Drawing attention is what safety posters will provide.
2] Safety Signs
Signs are crucial because they let people know when something is out of the normal. You can use a variety of signage in your workplace like direction signs, warning signs, caution signs, ppe signs, mandatory signs, combination signs etc. For example, you are in a building and there’s a fire in the area the first thing you’ll do is find an nearby exit. If there are no direction signs available then chances of finding an exit is less and you being a victim is more. So for these situations these safety signs are must to have in any workplace. One can readily translate live information into visible information with appropriate signage placed in the appropriate areas, allowing for the immediate identification of both problems and opportunities.
3] Floor Markings
Floor Markings prevent maximum errors, boost efficiency, and improve safety at work, it is crucial to stay in compliance and benchmarking. That’s the reason we need to designate various components properly. The marking of equipment and production sections, raw materials, finished items, offices, rooms, work cells, storage areas, emergency lanes and evacuation routes, floors etc. are all included in this.
These floor markings are used to better organise the workspace and identify key locations for safety and security. Pipe markings are also extremely important as it conveys all pertinent details about the pipelines, such as their content, direction, and flow rate. Arrows are utilised to show the direction of the flow, and colours are frequently used to show the type of content.
4] Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Work Instructions
Standardization, system stability and safety are the goals of a powerful visual management system. Through these work related instructions one can easily reduce production errors/ work mistakes and assure that tasks are always carried out by all individuals in the best manner as per the instruction. Each machine/equipment or workstation needs to have visuals like work-related instructions, technical details, control charts etc. where everyone can easily view them and learn from them.
In order to improve clarity and workplace communication, visual controls are frequently used in combination with colour specifications. Also keep in mind that the finest visuals are those that are presented at the point of need, including images, and/or illustrations/designs.
5] Embrace 5S in your workplace system.
When you have decided that implementing visual management is one of the needs then you are welcoming 5s in to your work system. Al visual tools or visual management techniques are included in the 5S methodology might assist in organising the workplace. For instance, the 5S methodology’s second step, “sort, set, shine, standardize, sustain encourages use of floor markings, colour coding. Safety posters, safety signs etc. All this will ensure that every waste is removed and your workplace area is clean and safe.
6] Total Productive Maintenance & Total Quality Management
TPM visuals can be useful for identifying irregularities and stopping them from becoming failures. TQM concentrates on ensuring that internal policies and process standards reduce errors, which involves concentrating on the ongoing process while simultaneously identifying and determining what issues are responsible for them so that more controls may be put in place.
TPM and TQM can be achieved through visual management, resulting in less downtime or Delay time that depends on a process. In the end, a visual management system aids in the achievement of: Accidents, defects, breakdowns, and waste all at zero.
7]Performance Boards / Informative Boards
To keep everyone informed about operating status updates or performance of particular areas in a company then performance boards or informative boards is what you will need. To talk about the issues from the previous day and start planning for the work ahead, everyday meetings might be held in front of these board. Having such visual tool will ensure your departments are working just more than fine.
Area information boards should be put in a prominent spot where everyone can see it. A workplace environment without a performance board is like to a vehicle without brake lights. To give people insight into how the operation is working these boards should be presented in a visually appealing manner. Performance data proved to be precise, updated, clear of complexity, informative, and simple to grasp.
Final Thoughts
Overcoming obstacles is an everyday thing even if we are frequently successful, but somehow we are unaware of it. There is always a chance where mistakes can happen and lead to major accident or even a fatality. That’s the reason why businesses in India have trusted visual management consultancy service from Visualmitra where we gather our team of experts and find out to strange challenges and circumstances. We assist them in resolving your particular issues and understand the overall culture of your business.
Talk to our experts on +91 9820061281 to know more about how effectively we manage to build a visual management system.