Visual management to support leaders' standard work
The role of leadership is fundamental to sustaining the lean transformation. But how should lean leadership behave? What changes should leaders make in the way they work? How do we move from the current firefighting mode to a situation in which leaders are effectively involved in improving business performance and developing people?
One of the most important tools supporting the work of lean leadership is Visual Management. Visual Management lets everyone know how things are going without having to ask anyone or turn on a single computer.
We can define Visual Management as a system of planning, control, and continuous improvement that integrates simple visual tools making it possible to understand the current situation at a quick “glance”, and that supports leader standard work to ensure that processes adhere to standards and to enable ongoing improvements.
Visual Management should allow everyone to see and understand the same thing, making the situation transparent, helping to focus on processes rather than people, and prioritizing what is truly necessary. It should provide information that generates action at the point of communication. Furthermore, it should be maintained by those who actually do the work, who should be the first to notice abnormalities. And finally, it should be connected to the business objectives.
Many people confuse Visual Management with “visual pollution”, that is, displaying a variety of historical information on boards and panels exhibited like wallpaper. This is completely different from what we define as Visual Management, which should make it possible to understand and see abnormalities as close as possible to the place and time they occur, and to know what is being done to correct them.
When we talk about Visual Management, we are also referring to the methods and practices that make it possible to carry out “genchi genbutsu”, “go and see for yourself, directly at the place where things actually happen, with your own eyes”. We recall the essential difference between facts (the real world) and data (information that comes from reality). Visual Management helps us understand the facts.
But what will leaders go to see in the “gemba”, the place where things actually happen? Leader standard work consists of engaging in repetitive activities designed to identify abnormal situations, such as out-of-standard work, out-of-standard inventory, out-of-standard delivery levels, out-of-standard costs, out-of-standard accident levels, etc. And thereby to identify “gaps” and deviations and establish corrective actions.
But how should leaders do this? Through walks in the “gemba”, carefully designed to review the fundamental Visual Management tools.
At each of these levels, from team leaders and supervisors to managers and directors, there are specific visual management tools that should be looked at on these walks.
For example, in a factory one can follow the hour-by-hour production board (QAP) to know whether there are delays and what the problems are. The team leader every hour, the supervisor every half day, the manager daily, and the director weekly. There may be a general board showing the main indicators, such as quality, 5S, costs, etc., basic for everyone, in a place easily accessible to all. Or there may be Andon to trigger the chain of help, which is fundamental for team leaders and supervisors.
In administrative areas, Visual Management is equally important. For example, the Purchasing area can display the arrival of materials, the placing of orders, the existence of delays, raw material inventories above or below the established standard, a weekly evaluation of supplier delivery performance, placed in a suitable location, etc.
But we must not forget the different style that lean leadership requires. Visual Management is not the means by which leadership exerts closer and tighter control or micromanages. Rather, “go and see” allows the lean leader to perform his or her role in the chain of help, that is, to help people understand and solve real problems.
A walk through the “gemba” without proper Visual Management becomes a festive event with pats on the back from “populist leaders”, or else an event for pointing fingers at the “guilty” and looking for someone to blame, carried out by “traditional authoritarian leaders”. The walk through the “gemba” thus becomes pure theater, sometimes a comedy where people have fun, sometimes a horror movie in which people are frightened and intimidated.
How can the lean leader effectively help, beyond the often empty rhetoric of the “servant leader”? If leaders do not know what to look at and see, what to conclude from the situation, and do not help people search for root causes, they are not able to help. Leaders must develop people and organizations to improve continuously. What they say or do guides behaviors, for example, toward hiding or exposing problems. The walk through the “gemba” thus becomes an essential element for the lean leader to fulfill his or her role.
The role of the lean leader, in the daily work of solving problems, planning, implementing improvements, and developing people, must be supported by proper Visual Management. Visual Management should help change behaviors and contribute to transforming the role and style of leadership.
PS. On August 17 we will be offering the new Chain of Help workshop, which is fundamental for establishing a structure for support and problem solving in a systematic and standardized way, and in which some elements of Visual Management will be present.
