Pascal Dennis, co-author of Harnessing Digital Disruption
The Four Levels of Visual Management, Part 2
Last time I talked about making problems visible through the four levels of visual management. I described Levels 1 and 2, which have comparatively low power. Today, our topic is Visual Management, Levels 3 and 4:
Level 3 – Organizes Behavior
Home positions for tools & equipment are a good example. In a surgery, home positions provide a nice visual confirmation that sponges, scalpels and other equipment are back where they belong – and not inside the patient!
In manufacturing, having a home position for, say, our torque wrench and gauges, ensures a) they’re there when we need them, and, as important, b) we know when they’re not there. “Right, Bonnie is doing her daily 2:00 pm torque audit.”
Other good examples include the ribbed perimeters, and studded lane lines on highways. You know at once if you’re on the median or straddling your lane. You quickly correct your behavior.
Recently, I saw a nice kaizen in the Oncology department of a children’s hospital. Infections are a major risk in such wards. How to encourage staff & parents to decontaminate their hands before they enter the room? Move the hand decontamination unit to the point of entry. You can’t enter Oncology without seeing and using the unit. As a result, hand hygiene compliance rates have spiked.
Effective Agile teams implement the Agile ‘ceremonies’ each week including the Monday morning planning meeting, Daily Stand-up, and Friday review of the week’s work. Such process discipline reinforces purpose, highlights abnormalities, and organizes countermeasures while reducing hassle.
Level 4 – The Defect is Impossible
OpEx/Lean practitioners will recognize the ‘poka-yoke’ concept. We develop such a deep grasp of our process and its possible failure modes, that we install gizmos and practices that make them impossible.
Manufacturing is full of these: alarms on torque wrenches, electronic lights and safety mats that disable the machine if a team member enters the line of fire, gasoline nozzles that won’t fit diesel tanks and so on.
A good website payment process makes it impossible to proceed to the next screen unless you have entered the needed information correctly. In Health Care, a poka-yoke on gas lines make it impossible to mis-connect oxygen and other gas lines.
As we get better at OpEx/Lean, our visual management naturally progresses from Level 1 to Level 4. Once we’re good at Level 1 and 2 visual management, we begin to think. “The same defect – here we go again! How do we prevent it?”
Who is the best source of Level 3 and 4 visual management? Front-line team members, of course, which is why Total Involvement is a leader’s priority. Alienate the front line and you lose all their insight & creativity. Problems mushroom – but you already know that.
OpEx/Lean fundamentals like visual management are also the cornerstone of Innovation. By protecting your core business with OpEx/Lean, you lay the foundation for Igniting New Growth with Digital methods.
Best regards,
Pascal Dennis
E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS: To learn more about my executive mentoring programs: Exec 101 - Protecting the Core Business, and Exec 201 – Igniting New Growth, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 1
Canada's Innovation Makeover: Singapore’s Cheat Sheet
The Two-Gear Economy, part 2 - Singapore’s Innovation Ecosystem
The Two-Gear Economy, part 1 – Canada’s Innovation Predicament
The Four Levels of Visual Management, Part 2
Last time I talked about making problems visible through the four levels of visual management. I described Levels 1 and 2, which have comparatively low power. Today, our topic is Visual Management, Levels 3 and 4:
Level 3 – Organizes Behavior
Home positions for tools & equipment are a good example. In a surgery, home positions provide a nice visual confirmation that sponges, scalpels and other equipment are back where they belong – and not inside the patient!
In manufacturing, having a home position for, say, our torque wrench and gauges, ensures a) they’re there when we need them, and, as important, b) we know when they’re not there. “Right, Bonnie is doing her daily 2:00 pm torque audit.”
Other good examples include the ribbed perimeters, and studded lane lines on highways. You know at once if you’re on the median or straddling your lane. You quickly correct your behavior.
Recently, I saw a nice kaizen in the Oncology department of a children’s hospital. Infections are a major risk in such wards. How to encourage staff & parents to decontaminate their hands before they enter the room? Move the hand decontamination unit to the point of entry. You can’t enter Oncology without seeing and using the unit. As a result, hand hygiene compliance rates have spiked.
Effective Agile teams implement the Agile ‘ceremonies’ each week including the Monday morning planning meeting, Daily Stand-up, and Friday review of the week’s work. Such process discipline reinforces purpose, highlights abnormalities, and organizes countermeasures while reducing hassle.
Level 4 – The Defect is Impossible
OpEx/Lean practitioners will recognize the ‘poka-yoke’ concept. We develop such a deep grasp of our process and its possible failure modes, that we install gizmos and practices that make them impossible.
Manufacturing is full of these: alarms on torque wrenches, electronic lights and safety mats that disable the machine if a team member enters the line of fire, gasoline nozzles that won’t fit diesel tanks and so on.
A good website payment process makes it impossible to proceed to the next screen unless you have entered the needed information correctly. In Health Care, a poka-yoke on gas lines make it impossible to mis-connect oxygen and other gas lines.
As we get better at OpEx/Lean, our visual management naturally progresses from Level 1 to Level 4. Once we’re good at Level 1 and 2 visual management, we begin to think. “The same defect – here we go again! How do we prevent it?”
Who is the best source of Level 3 and 4 visual management? Front-line team members, of course, which is why Total Involvement is a leader’s priority. Alienate the front line and you lose all their insight & creativity. Problems mushroom – but you already know that.
OpEx/Lean fundamentals like visual management are also the cornerstone of Innovation. By protecting your core business with OpEx/Lean, you lay the foundation for Igniting New Growth with Digital methods.
Best regards,
Pascal Dennis
E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS: To learn more about my executive mentoring programs: Exec 101 - Protecting the Core Business, and Exec 201 – Igniting New Growth, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 1
Canada's Innovation Makeover: Singapore’s Cheat Sheet
The Two-Gear Economy, part 2 - Singapore’s Innovation Ecosystem
The Two-Gear Economy, part 1 – Canada’s Innovation Predicament
