Tag: Visual warehouses

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Warehouse Visual Management Projects

Visual Control in the Warehouse: What You Need to Know

Visual control is one of the most popular concepts in the warehousing sector today, but businesses adopting it should keep in mind that it isn’t a solution. To perform well, tiered accountability, like any other lean tool, must be part of a system. This requires some serious research and analysis and evaluation of your team’s use of lean tools.

A warehouse that practices “system thinking” makes extensive use of tools and techniques for business improvement and has created effective procedures to ensure that tools are applied consistently throughout the company.

It may be unsettling, and you may face resistance from certain parts of the company after all, “new” may be a frightening word. If you hit a brick wall, remember that even if visual management is done precisely, if the support to keep it going isn’t in place, it will eventually fade. Managers will wake up one day to find the “how we’ve always done things” has returned to its original place.

If you innovate your workflows correctly, with forethought and commitment to your end-goals, you’ll discover that this strong concept will improve the way you do business within your warehouse walls

What Impact Will It Have on My Warehouses?

A warehouse with supported visual control will be a worksite where a staff member can find anything they need without assistance. Their guides and tools are clearly labelled and placed in a convenient location.

This means less time spent running up and down the chain of command, fewer questions about procedures, and fewer time- and money-consuming “workarounds” for broken or outdated workflow links. New employees adjust more quickly, and a sick or absent team member with specialized knowledge doesn’t bring everything to a standstill; delays are the most common operational blunder.

With the help of management buy-in, you can improve the efficiency of every aspect of your workflow by asking three simple questions:

  • What went very well?
  • What didn’t go exactly?
  • What can we do to make it better?

Another important way your warehouses will change is that your associates will become empowered specialists. They’re the ones who can tell you what needs to be labelled, why it needs to be labelled, where it should go, and what should be cut out completely. Reports, figures, and data can only go so far; to truly make a difference, you must first focus on the foundation, rather than a top-down view of your company.

Again, visual management is merely a technique to assist you in achieving efficiency. It can’t possibly be the only tool in the arsenal. It requires the plans that are currently locked up in your warehouse staff’s knowledge and experiences.

How can I get started with visual management?

No matter where you start, education will be your first step toward successful visual control. There is currently a disconnect between employees on the ground and their degree-based, experienced managers.

This may be a minor distinction, such as a dialect mismatch rather than a completely separate language, but it still needs to be addressed. Your new common language, like learning a new language, will need to be created from the ground up with simple agreements: process arrows, numbering assets like forklifts, numbering forklift spaces, posting your verbal norms, and so on.

Visualmitra are here to help you make Lean work by applying continuous improvement across your business. To find out more about how our visual management specialists can support you, get in touch with our Expert on +9820061281 or fill in our contact form.

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5s Implementation Fascility Visual Management Visual Management

Why implementing Visual Management at your facility is crucial?

Information and communication are at the root of any firm, regardless of its industry. This information must be easy to access, update, and monitor due to the ever-changing nature of processes, costs, budgets, KPIs, output, and several other aspects. Using Visualmitra’s wide variety of visual management products, accomplishing this has never been so simple and straightforward.


Visual management helps to embed critical data into an organization’s culture by making it part of the fabric of the workplace. Because visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than word, we’ve created a selection of solutions that will help your staff remain on top of their responsibilities and meet their goals more quickly.


It shares the information in one glimpse

While documentation and digital files are great for keeping firm information, visual management is all about making the most critical information accessible in seconds and from just a few feet away. Magnetic overlays, whiteboards, floor markers, and shadow boards are all good examples of how to present information in a clear and timely manner.


Floor markings, for example, provide very visible directives and best practise recommendations, whilst whiteboards can communicate everything from root cause analysis and 5S audits to customer service tips and “You Said, We Did” accomplishments.


Monitor critical progress

You’ll notice that everything goes more smoothly if you use a visual management method. The tracking of processes, efficiency, and waste, for example, helps your team to improve the results even more through continuous improvement. Standards, targets, and deadlines are all well and good, but unless they’re always visible, your employees may lose sight of everyday performance and development


Tackling the problems

In the workplace, a variety of challenges might occur. Some are chronic, such as excessive waste generation and supply chain kinks, while others are one-of-a-kind and urgent, such as an accident that could have been easily averted.


Visual management software is essential for identifying problems and errors. They allow your teams to figure out what isn’t working, create a mechanism to fix it, and then communicate information properly to inspire operational excellence.


For example, shadow boards ensure that when equipment is not in use, it is always returned to its proper location, and the TIM WOODS system assists everyone in reducing the eight categories of waste that can influence a company’s productivity, sustainability, and profit margins.


Increase Employee Engagement

Employees become more engaged in their jobs when they have constant access to performance data. It is critical to feel linked to one’s work since it empowers the individual and clearly demonstrates how their role improves the department and the company as a whole.


Achieve operational excellence We’re a group of visual management and Lean management experts that believe that every company should have the resources it needs to optimize its daily operations. Contact us at 9324974251 or fill out our contact form to learn more about how we can help you be more efficient in your work.

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Health and safety Visual Management Warehouse Visual Management Projects

Visual Management – Managing Health, Safety, Environment & other Regulations.

In this blog, we are talking about overall Warehouse Management through Visual Management, Why Visual Management is needed, how is it effective, how your daily warehouse activities can be controlled and many more.

Imagine you are a visitor in your warehouse. You walk inside through the gate and look around. Can you identify the workflow within 60 seconds? Can you see where the safe place to walk is? Or which place is hazardous?

If your answer to any of these was ‘NO’ then Implementing Visual Management is the best solution.

When working in an environment with large machinery, pallets, racking, forklifts etc. warehouse safety becomes a priority. According to a survey conducted by HSE Experts, the estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions is more than 14.3 billion us dollars. OSHA statistics reveal that as many as 16 warehouse workers died while working at warehouses during the period 2015-2019.

Complying with safety norms, is a tough job that involves a high degree of attention and implementation. The bitter truth is that safety practices can be best implemented only once you know what safety challenges you are facing so you can resolve them. Trust me, it can be overwhelming. And, perhaps, you’ve experienced it already. In today’s world, litigation is a terrifying adversary for any business, thus every warehouse must exercise caution when it comes to health and safety.

What is Visual Management and what does warehouse visual management include?

Visual management is a type of communication that uses colour, images, and less words. If warehouse safety is prioritized, the above safety statistics can be regulated or reduced dramatically. One of the best ways to have control is implementing Visual Management.

Warehouse Visual Management includes employees/workers/visitors knowing the safety parameters, rules, regulations immediately. Warehouses are places of speed and efficiency, and anything that drags this down may seem counterproductive but visual management is dedicated to improve safety, quality and productivity of any warehouse. In any warehouse, minimizing risk and proper visibility contributes to safe working environment.

Visual management means taking proper precautions to establish a safe environment. In the end, all will agree that staying safe and healthy are key pillars in promoting or maintaining an enjoyable workplace.

What are the hazards in the Warehouse and how can Visual Management be useful?

The most common warehouse safety hazards are as follows

1] Heavy Equipment Accidents (Forklift & Pallets) – This heavy equipment’s can cause serious damage to nearby people and the property. OSHA’s most often cited danger in warehouse operations is the improper use of forklifts.

2] Docks – A worker crushed between forklift truck and loading dock can be the worst accident to ever happen in a warehouse.

3] Conveyors – They can cause serious injuries to workers by trapping them in machinery or causing them to be struck by falling objects.

4] Material Handling and Storage – Working in a warehouse with large goods puts a burden on your employees’ bodies, particularly their shoulders and backs. Also, improper storage can lead to further damage as people would fall or ignore aisle or even walk on forklift zone.

5] Work at Height – This is common in every warehouse. It should either be avoided or done with safer means.

6] Slips & Trips – These were the second biggest cause of fatal accidents at warehouse. Slips, stumbles, and falls account for the bulk of warehouse injuries. Slippery or uneven floors, as well as accumulations of garbage, residue, grease, or cords in walking areas, can all contribute to such events.

7] Chemical exposure – People have developed carcinogenic diseases as a result of improper equipment use and chemical storage. A number of warehouses store or employ hazardous substances in their operations. Accidental spills, however, cannot be avoided. The safety of warehouse workers may be endangered by chemical leaks and accidents.

8] Getting Hit by Falling Objects – Stacks of objects on shelves are always at risk of falling off at any time. Incompetent operations setup and human mistake are to blame for these types of injuries.

9] Fire Hazard – Ensuring the installation of emergency parameters can go a long way in making sure staff is safe.

10] Electrical Hazard – Electrical safety parameters is must for all workers to ensure theirs and others safety.

11] Improper use of PPE – This included workers wearing loose ppe or sometimes not wearing ppe at all.

12] First Aid Use – People lack knowledge in use of Basic first aid.

13] Emergency Preparedness – Warehouses lack emergency procedures. Consideration must be given to emergency procedures that should be established immediately.

All the above hazards can be effectively informed, instructed, trained by implementing visual management. The accurate and effective displays offer a mistake-proof atmosphere that encourages standard compliance with ease. It quantifies the path to targets for success. This project covers a wide range of visual resources, such as

Safety Signs and Safety Posters, Safety Informative Charts, Area Identification Boards, Informative Boards (KPI Boards, Performance White Boards etc.), Compliance Boards (Policies, Work Instructions, Standard Operating Procedure – SOP’S), Evacuation plans, Environment Safety Boards, Value Added Products like Floor Markings, Floor Tapes etc.

Visual Management is like a visual training that is instrumental in enabling employees/workers to be competent. A competent employee is equipped with all the relevant information and is fully aware of the hazards and the use of appropriate preventive measures. Through this a warehouse can measure its overall performance on safety, quality and productivity along with aligning your team towards same objectives.

Visual Management makes sure your employees/visitors don’t underestimate potential dangers and make mistake. Everyone wants to return home healthy and safe at the end of the day.

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Factory Visual Management Factory Visual Management Projects Fascility Visual Management Visual Management Warehouse Visual Management Projects

A Complete Warehouse Visual Management Project

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.