10/01/2018 The Truth about Visual Management Boards

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THE TRUTH ABOUT VISUAL MANAGEMENT BOARDS

TXM Lean Solutions (http://txm.com) > China Blog (http://txm.com/category/chinablog/) > The Truth about Visual Management Boards

By Justin Tao – TXM China Consulting Director

(http://txm.com/about-us/our-team/justin-tao)
If takt time is the heart of lean production, visual
management represents the nervous system in lean
management. Visual management is an indispensable
tool when we implement Lean. It helps the other lean
tools more powerful by making their impact on the
business visual. Most companies have visual
management boards, which is the simplest format of
visual management. However, I often find that some,
so called, visual management boards become
information boards, only showing the information,
records or plans of the area. The contents are often
out of date. What’s worse, I even find some visual
management boards on the production line all in
English in a Chinese factory. In this factory the team
leader told me that she fill the information just by
guesswork since she can’t understand any English! In
An Effective Visual Management board showing the
this case, the visual management board definitely
“Fingerprints” of Active Use
becomes a “show board”.
So what is a visual management board? I think a true
visual management board should contain three elements: standard, problem and action.
Standard, means there should have the target or plan on the board, which tells how things should be if
everything is perfect;
Problem, means deviations from standard. Anything different from Standard is a problem, either actual
performance or the standard itself;
Action, means what countermeasures should be taken when there’s a problem.
All these elements help user to understand what’s actually going on in this area. Only by making the things visible it is
possible to identify the deviations (problems) and quickly solve or address them.
So there’s another question: what kind of visual management board is a good one? In TXM, We believe that a good
visual management board should match 31 seconds rule: In 1 second, it can tell us if it’s normal, everything fine in this
area, according to the standard or plan; in 10 seconds, it tells us what the problem it is if it’s not normal; and in
another 20 seconds, it tell us what actions are taken, who is responsible for this and what kind support needed. A good
visual management board can have dialogue with users and viewers, and make lean daily leadership process more
simple and efficient.
Visual management is a bridge between Standard work and daily meetings, it should be used properly and efficiently,
and become a powerful tool for daily management.

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10/01/2018 The Truth about Visual Management Boards

The form of the Visual management board is limited only by your imagination! Contact TXM (http://txm.com/contact-
us) to make your visual management more efficiently and effectively.

Watch a video About using Visual Management boards in the Lean Daily Leadership Process.
(http://txm.com/video/txm-lean-methodology-video-lean-daily-leadership-process)
Learn more about Visual Management (http://txm.com/blog/visual-management)

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