Visual Management; a corner stone for world class manufacturing

Visual Management: Streamlining World-Class Manufacturing

In the realm of world-class manufacturing (WCM), Visual Management stands as a fundamental cornerstone. It's all about integrating visual cues into daily operations to enhance clarity and autonomy. By identifying, filtering, and presenting complex organizational information within manufacturing setups, Visual Management transforms the way we work. It's more than just aesthetics; it's a practical tool for improving efficiency.

Visual Management achieves several critical goals:

1. Pervasive Information Availability: In a visually managed workplace, information is readily available to all. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and can make informed decisions.

2. Self-Management: Visual cues help individuals manage their tasks effectively. They don't need constant supervision because the process is clear and intuitive.

3. Exposure of Abnormalities: Visual Management makes it easy to spot irregularities or issues in real-time, allowing for swift corrective action.

4. Elimination of Non-Value Adding Activities: Counting, thinking, searching, identification, testing, and operational defects - these time-wasting activities are minimized or eliminated altogether.

WCM demands that its structure, including foundation blocks, pillars, and roof, be visualized. This visualization helps bring together and operationalize the various elements effectively.

A visually managed workplace is self-ordering, self-explaining, self-regulating, and self-improving. It achieves this through four key components:

1. Visual Indicators: These are used to communicate crucial information that influences behavior. They appear when specific conditions are met. For example, team boards, charts, photos, and value stream maps communicate information from the technical level to operations.

2. Visual Signals: These convey pre-arranged messages, demanding attention and action from the receiver. Think of traffic lights, where red, amber, and green require different reactions.

3. Visual Controls: They limit or guide human actions, often through the environment or equipment. For instance, walkways on factory floors and gear shift patterns on vehicles.

4. Visual Guarantees: These ensure a defined outcome through mistake-proofing (poka-yoke). They prevent unwanted events, such as electrical plugging systems using different pin shapes to segregate power types.

The rise of Visual Management in manufacturing is closely tied to the digitization of facilities and equipment. Real-time data access, especially in operations, production, and maintenance, has opened up new possibilities for visualization within the WCM framework.

Six S, a foundational element of WCM, is a daily safety and housekeeping tool. It consists of Safety, Sort, Shine, Set-in-place, Systemize, and Standardize. It, too, is a form of Visual Management, enhancing workplace aesthetics and efficiency. Progress is displayed through before-and-after photos, and practices are reinforced through the 6S board. Safety hazards and practices, like lock-out tag-out, are prominently displayed, ensuring a safe working environment.

In team settings, Visual Management eliminates errors stemming from miscommunication, part qualification, missing items, and more. It creates a common language within teams, facilitating the mastery of complex systems.

Within the WCM's focused improvement pillar, Visual Management aids in optimizing equipment, processes, and systems. It visualizes techniques to prevent mistakes, analyzes forces behind phenomena, and identifies improvement opportunities.

In the autonomous maintenance pillar, Visual Management assists in clearly defining tasks and checkpoints for equipment operators. Visual cues ensure proper equipment cleaning, oiling, tightening, and inspections.

The planned maintenance pillar benefits from Visual Management through graphical representations of maintenance actions. This enhances analysis for reliability and maintainability.

Visual Management plays a vital role in people development, integrating work with learning and promoting shared ownership and on-the-job training.

The quality maintenance pillar, focused on zero defects, leverages Visual Management to control process interactions between man, machine, material, and method, reducing errors and defects.

Energy management benefits from Visual Management through effective monitoring, reporting, and evaluation, crucial for achieving energy savings.

The office and administration pillar ensures efficient WCM team functioning and support. Visual Management promotes WCM within the organization.

Equipment management, responsible for optimizing equipment throughout its lifecycle, is enhanced by Visual Management, from conceptualization to maintenance and modernization.

The Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) pillar, aiming for zero accidents and pollution, employs Visual Management to identify and address risks and hazards. It also ensures proper handling of hazardous substances.

Visual Management's impact extends to employees and customers. By sharing performance indicators openly, it drives continuous improvement and creates trust within the workplace.

Visual Management simplifies complex information, fosters transparency, and enhances decision-making. When applied effectively, it's a practical tool that empowers organizations to streamline their manufacturing processes, making them more efficient and responsive to change. In the fast-paced world of manufacturing, Visual Management is the compass guiding us toward excellence.