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Visual Management: Enhancing Lean Excellence with Kanban, 5S, and more lean practices

Lean management has become a buss word in industry. In this blog, we will throw light on its introduction, benefits, core principals and challenges faced by the company while effective implementation of Lean management.

Lean management is a systematic approach to running an organization by continuously improving processes and eliminating waste. Originating from the Toyota Production System, it focuses on creating value for the customer while minimizing resources, time, and effort.

Benefits of Lean Management
  • Increased Efficiency: By eliminating waste and optimizing processes, organizations can achieve higher efficiency and productivity.
  • Improved Quality: Continuous improvement and error-proofing lead to higher quality products and services.
  • Reduced Costs: Streamlined processes and reduced waste result in lower operational costs.
  • Greater Customer Satisfaction: By focusing on value from the customer’s perspective, lean management ensures that customers receive high-quality products and services that meet their needs.
  • Enhanced Employee Engagement: Lean practices often involve employees in problem-solving and improvement processes, leading to higher engagement and job satisfaction.
    • Core Principles of Lean Management
    1. Value: Define what constitutes value from the customer’s perspective. Only activities that directly contribute to this value are retained.
    2. Value Stream: Map out all the steps in the value stream and identify which steps add value. Eliminate or reduce steps that do not add value.
    3. Flow: Ensure that the value-adding steps flow smoothly without interruptions or delays. This requires streamlining processes and removing bottlenecks.
    4. Pull: Produce only what is needed when it is needed. This is in contrast to push systems where production is based on forecasts.
    5. Perfection: Continuously strive for perfection by seeking to improve processes and eliminate waste. This involves a culture of continuous improvement (Kaizen).
    Key Concepts and Tools
  • Waste (Mu da): Anything that does not add value to the product or service from the customer’s perspective. Lean identifies seven types of waste: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra-processing.
  • 5S Methodology: A workplace organization method that includes five phases: Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. This helps create a clean, organized, and efficient workspace.
  • Kaizen: A philosophy of continuous improvement involving everyone from management to workers. Small, incremental changes regularly lead to significant improvements over time.
  • Kanban: A visual tool for managing work as it moves through a process. Kanban boards use cards to represent work items and columns to represent each stage of the process, ensuring a visual workflow.
  • Just-In-Time (JIT): A production strategy that strives to improve business return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs.
  • Poka-Yoke: A mistake-proofing approach to prevent errors by designing systems that make it difficult or impossible to make mistakes.
    • Typical Challenges for Lean Management
  • Cultural Change: Shifting to a lean culture requires significant changes in mindset and practices, which can be challenging to implement and sustain.
  • Sustaining Improvements: Continuous improvement requires ongoing effort and commitment, which can be difficult to maintain over the long term.
    • How Visual Management can support encountering these challenges??

    Initially bringing in cultural change and Sustaining Improvements after implementation are the main challenges leading to ineffective implementation of lean management. Encountering these challenges need the change in mind-set across all the levels within the organization. Periodic trainings, Regular system monitoring are the solutions. But again, effect of these solutions is temporary and there is no assurance that all the team members including the newly joined employees are covered every time. That generates a need of developing a permanent solution.

    Visual management is recognised to be the most effective solution building a long-lasting impact than other ways of creating awareness. Appropriate and simple displays including policies, procedures, awareness creating posters and signs can contribute well as those are at site 24 hrs and are visible to all. Visual management is the best communication media which can create awareness on lean practices and also the discipline / protocols to be followed at respective stages.

    VisualMitra, an India based company is instrumental in developing a module named “FVM – Facility Visual Management” which is a complete end to end solution towards building up effective visual management at any facility. Their experts visit the facility and identify all the appropriate visuals to be displayed at various locations within the premises. VisualMitra team further works on designing and also installation of the displays to bring in change in culture enhancing effectiveness of lean management.