December 9, 2015 Industry Forum Blog In Digital Manufacturing I mentioned that the time for NPI is being reduced, thanks to the use of technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D printing. While these methods may have been considered too expensive, the development of the cloud and Internet of Things is making them readily accessible, even for SME’s. Having recently seen these digital processes in action, I thought it would be good to show how they can be used to eliminate waste and reduce cost from our NPI projects. I’ve used links to videos to show you these processes in action. Much better than words. You can Google more examples, watch out though it is addictive! VR A person using specialist electronic equipment interacts with a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment. This technology is already used in immersive vehicle design and for creating plant layouts. Take a look at this video from Ford; it describes how VR enables real time collaboration from designers across the world. AR Computer generated virtual information is placed directly into our world. Unlike VR the user doesn’t require a portal to access the image. Auto and aero manufacturers are already experimenting with AR as part of their design and development programmes. Tests show that errors and time to assemble are reduced, even for first time users. To give you an idea of how AR works in an industrial setting, take 5 minutes to watch this clip on the Daqri Smart helmet, a piece of wearable tech. And if that isn’t futuristic enough for you, try wearable holograms! 3D printing Material is “printed” thin layer after thin layer in simple or complex shapes to create a fully functioning, 3D part. It is also known as additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping and free form fabrication. It’s really not a gimmick! You can print strong, working, complex items. Look at this video of a working wrench being made. If you want to know how it works, read this. 3D printing is widely used to make prototypes, but is also now being used for part production. And if you need to scale up your business – just use more printers! The uses of 3D printing seem to be limited only by our imagination. In the future we could have 4D printing. Yes the 4th dimension is time! Benefits When used as part of a seamless digital manufacturing solution, these technologies help to reduce the time for design, prototyping, validation, training and ramp up to full production. And there are quality and cost benefits as well. It becomes quicker to: Retrieve information. You ask the system for what you want and it delivers it to your line of sight. Transfer information from system to system (no longer manual). Interpret the information you are given compared to a written Standard Operating Procedure. Capture, store and distribute lessons learned (instant rather than weeks). Create prototypes. There is no minimum batch size, no moulds or jigs to make and set ups are almost instant. It becomes easier to: Communicate results. Complex ideas can be shared visually with stakeholders at design reviews. Visualise how the product will look and fit together before making a prototype. This allows designers to identify and resolve problems earlier in the process. It also minimises the number of physical iterations. Simulate assembling the parts to eliminate operator motion waste later in the process. “Immersively” train operators in advance of production. Next weeks blog will look at other smart technologies and their impact on eliminating waste from our processes.
December 3, 2015 Industry Forum Blog How will it re-shape our business and daily lives? The best description I have found is this. “The creation of a digital thread that seamlessly ties together the flow of information from design through manufacturing to end consumers, including the full life cycle of the product.” Digital manufacturing is not just machines talking to machines on the shopfloor, but the shopfloor talking to design, maintenance, stores, sales, planning. Also, the business talking to suppliers, consumers and the actual product in use! I’ve shown some of these in this diagram. Digital manufacturing is also known as; Industry 4.0, Cyber physical systems (CPS), Internet of Everything, virtual manufacturing solutions and advanced manufacturing. It depends whose selling it! Why is it different to ERP, CAD or CMMS? Enterprise Resource Planning (for business activities), Computer Aided Design and Computerised Maintenance Management Systems only represent part of the overall picture. Most business will also have other digital systems; for controlling robots, supplying quotes, testing and validation. Typically none of them are linked together and so don’t feed each other information, without some form of manual intervention. Also the data collected is stored in “silos” and either analysed reactively or dumped. If the systems don’t exchange information they can’t enable changes, control settings or allow “learning”. And if data is kept in separate silos then no linkages can be made. So digital manufacturing is about the connection of all the different systems from one end of the supply chain to the final consumer. This allows end to end exchange of information. Three of the big enablers for this seamless connection and advanced analysis are the Internet of Things, cloud computing and big data analytics. What are the potential benefits? I’ve deliberately used the word potential here. It’s estimated that currently only 3% of equipment and systems are connected in some way. But it’s changing really rapidly. Most people in the business are talking about smart factories, smart machines, smart tools and smart supply chains as well as smart products being a widespread reality by 2020/25. This take up is helped as cloud technologies and scalability makes it increasingly affordable, even for SMEs. However these are the main benefits that are currently being, or will soon be, realised. Benefits in the factory and supply chain Reduced time for new product development. This is assisted by the use of virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing in design, prototyping, simulation and testing. These technologies are giving us; reduced potential for error, proactive issue resolution, cost reductions and quicker right first time build. Streamlined feedback loops, reporting processes and near real time information analysis. Improved energy and resource efficiency, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint. Improved predictive maintenance systems, in turn raising safety, performance, availability and reliability. Instant compilation and quicker retrieval of data for compliance purposes. Benefits across the customer interface Highly customised products are supplied, as increasingly flexible equipment allows individualised mass production. Cost reductions, as systems supporting installation, service and maintenance are linked. Enhanced purchasing experience, as smart products allow additional information to be seen by the customer using their smart phone. Improved customer service, as cloud based speech analytics continuously improves responses to the customer. Next week I will expand on some of these specific digital manufacturing techniques and how they will impact our improvement programmes. Thanks to AES, Bentley Motors Ltd., EveryWare Ltd, FORCAM, National Instruments, Cambridge Wireless and Siemens at the Advanced Engineering Show 2015, UK. Your visions of the future and enthusiasm inspired me to write these blogs.
November 25, 2015 Industry Forum Blog If you’re like me, a non-digital native, then you may well have been trying to make sense of the terminology being used today which is shaping tomorrow’s world. A non-digital native is anyone born or brought up before the widespread use of digital technology. That’s most of us over 30 – sorry! In this blog I offer a simple explanation of the cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data, all without using the word paradigm! This is the first in a series of blogs that look at how these new technologies will influence our daily lives, the way we manufacture and the impact they will have on lean, NPI and TPM programmes. Before we start, bear in mind this is a fast changing field and today’s descriptions are quickly changed. The use of these terms as marketing buzzwords also confuses the picture! The Cloud Cloud computing is where you access the computer services you want to use, by using an internet connection. This is instead of you owning them and having them located on your own equipment and premises. The provider charges you for what you use, rather than you buying, running and maintaining these systems for yourself. You need a portal (like a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone) and an internet connection to access them. The main service categories are: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – the servers and data storage devices. Platform as a Service (PaaS) – the operating systems. Software as a Service (SaaS) – applications and programmes. Cloud providers offer these services in all sorts of combinations. Read this great article about the biggest providers. I wondered how cloud computing was different to the internet as they both use the same technologies. The difference is where it is housed, who owns it and how we pay for it. It may surprise you to know you are probably already using cloud services (even if you are not paying for them at point of use). Facebook and Twitter use cloud technologies as do WebEx and GoToMeeting. Internet of Things This is the network created when physical objects connect with other equipment by using the internet. Machines talk to machines (M2M) and computing systems make use of the data sent between them. The physical objects, embedded with electronics, sensors or software, are known as smart devices. Already terms like smart phones, smart wear, smart products, smart factories and smart cities are appearing. Nest is a good example of IoT in action. It allows us to remotely switch on our heating, using our smart phone to connect with our thermostat. Big Data This is where large Volumes of data from a Variety of sources stream in for collection at high Velocity. (The 3 V’s are important). Because so many different sources are analysed, the outputs are used at a more strategic decision making level than the information generated by the IoT. This article explains what big data can and can’t do. Do they work together? Yes! The three are closely interlinked, for example. Big data analytics uses cloud computing for the volume and speed needed to produce meaningful linkages at an affordable cost. One of the sources of data it analyses is from the IoT. The IoT also uses cloud technologies and can incorporate big data analytics to enhance the level of information generated and used. The Nest uses big data analytics to teach the system to “set” itself. Still with me? Great! Our next blog will look at how these three enabling technologies are shaping future manufacturing.
November 18, 2015 Industry Forum Blog Although the title is a well known saying and a popular song lyric, it is an excellent analogy for all of us who strive to improve our businesses, by deploying lean techniques. I read two articles this week that mentioned the importance of certain lean techniques. However they stood out for very different reasons. The first, “How manufacturing employers are getting lean”, revealed that in a survey of 25000 manufacturers and distributors in the US, the use of various lean tools is on the rise. In particular 5S is now used by more than 71% of the respondents, compared to 66% in 2014. Initially I thought this was an encouraging trend. However as I read further, it concerned me that 5S seemed to be considered as a stand alone improvement programme, with Kanban, Takt Time Analysis and Value Stream Mapping named as alternatives. The second article, “Solving the Productivity Puzzle”, highlighted the views of the Manufacturing Advisory Group on what the UK needs to do to raise national productivity. On the subject of calculating product costs they point out that: “The lean capability of learning to see waste is the foundation of driving productivity up.” The key words that stand out to me are waste and foundation. 5S and 7 Waste are two of the tools that we use to create a foundation for improvement and prevent our “castle sinking into the quicksand”. Getting the foundation right for improving your business I learned that at the heart of the business philosophies of companies like Toyota, Nissan and Honda, lies a foundation block of improvement tools. These are 5S, 7 Waste, Visual Management and Standardised Work. They are called the foundation tools because they are used to stabilise the performance of the workplace. Correctly deployed they enable you to repeatedly achieve customer satisfaction, in terms of quality, cost and delivery (QCD), and at the same time make a profit. When you are in a stable position you have a known performance level and you will have got rid of many of the daily problems that consumed your time. In other words these tools stabilize the quicksand and provide the time and a solid base upon which you can carry out true improvement. True improvement in this context is the ongoing: elimination of waste elimination of variation reduction of cost These actions will improve the competitive position of your business – build your castle! Successful deployment of tools like kanban and Value Stream Mapping, and techniques used to achieve working to takt time, rely on having stable performance to start with. They don’t work if you can’t repeatedly perform at the same level. The secret to stability Use all four of the foundation tools together. Used individually, each tool will result in some cost reductions and performance improvement. And the continual identification and elimination of waste is at the heart of continuous improvement. However waste has a way of creeping back, standards slip and the gains are slowly eroded. I found that the key is to use 5S, Visual Management and Standardised Work together to lock into place the improved processes and prevent waste creeping back in. Top tip: If it is proving very difficult to achieve that stability try some structured Problem Solving. If you want to see some examples of these tools in action look at the Lean Awareness and Process Improvement Activity MasterClass case studies or contact Industry Forum.
November 11, 2015 Industry Forum Blog There are big benefits to be had whether you are redesigning an existing work area or planning a new site. Toyota’s new generation factories are planned to be 25% smaller, require 40% less investment and use 40% less energy to run than their current plants. On an environmental note, this means 55% less CO2 emissions! At the other end of the scale, when redesigning existing manufacturing areas, we would expect to achieve productivity increases of between 15% – 40%, as well as 50% reduction in lead time and work in progress. Further improvement to the bottom line is made by either selling off or making more goods in the space you free up. This level of improvement is typically achieved by teams of operators and engineers from the area, in a Kaizen style event. So how do we go about a redesign? Below are 4 steps learned from a Nissan Master Engineer. Note that their order is all important – any deviation will result in a line with wastes. Learning the painful way meant that when a shortcut was attempted, the team were commanded to return to step 1 and start again! Start with a blank piece of paper Always! Don’t even look at a floor plan of the existing area. Although it’s tempting to start by fitting equipment into the available space, don’t do it. You inevitably start working around existing pillars and walls and placing items near utility connection points. This rarely results in a waste free layout. Define the process List the operations in the order they take place, to build the product. You may already have this if you have done a line balance activity. Make sure you understand which products can be made using the same pieces of equipment. A process matrix is one way of doing this. Flow the operations This is where you design the ultimate lean layout. Use scale cut outs, or models, and lay them out on a blank surface. Don’t use a scale layout of the area yet! Aim to minimise the movement of parts, movement of people and movement of information. Again, the order is important. Tip: Improve flow by introducing chutes, ejectors, channels or roller tracking between equipment load and unload points. 4. Fit your ideal layout into the building plan Now that you have created the ideal, waste free layout, you can start to fit it into the space you have. Transfer your scale pieces on to a same scale layout of the building, maintaining your ideal layout as far as possible. Tip: Make sure you consider: Space for the flow of materials in and out of the cell. Easy access and storage for frequently used tooling. Space for standard in process stock and any WIP required. Access for maintenance. This is the point where compromises may have to be made and some waste may creep back in. However, play with your layout plan to minimise the waste as much as possible. Once you have used the four steps to plan your lean layout, it is recommended to simulate a trial before making expensive physical changes. A favourable way is to make full scale card cut outs of equipment footprints. Although, one time an overenthusiastic team also chalked out a body outline in the cell, just before we presented it to the senior team! Finally, ensure you document the improved process and layout using Standardised Work documents. Good luck creating your ultimate lean layouts! – November 2015 authored by a Senior Consultant at Industry Forum Update A great reflection on the process to design cells, in particular, the advice not to constrain your thinking when beginning the design process. Design what the ideal layout would be first – regardless of physical constraints such as walls, pillars etc. then work back from this. The layout should be driven by the line balance, as indicated in point 2. The line balance ensures the cell is designed to meet customer demand, and that the cell manning is correct. The distribution of workload across cell team members is essential to know when designing each workstation. This should take into consideration the position of the work piece and tools required, and also the line side logistics. By logistics, this is not just how the work piece moves into and out of the work station, but also what components need to be available, and how the pick face should be designed to enable the work station to operate efficiently. This can become quite complex, particularly if the cell is producing mixed model. Getting this right is essential for highly repetitive assembly cycles. If you want to understand more about lean techniques, visit our Lean Transformation page or Line Balance blog or click here to get in touch with Principal Lean Consultant , Mike Scull. You can also give us a call on +44 (0)121 717 6600.
November 4, 2015 Industry Forum Blog Lauded as a “Mandatory read for entrepreneurs” I wanted to see if the book by Eric Ries had anything to do with lean or was it just a name to grab attention. What I discovered were some “light bulb moments” for adapting lean in an environment that is uncertain and chaotic. And then I realised just how much this book had to offer a much wider audience than entrepreneurs running startups, including: Anyone who sets and uses KPIs. Anybody deploying lean. Anybody who runs projects using stage gate and waterfall processes. Here are my top four. To explore and understand the difference between actionable and vanity metrics Ries gives excellent examples of the need to clearly understand the cause and effect of any changes you make to your product or system. This can be done if you use actionable metrics that allow you to learn from your actions. Vanity metrics make it easy to assume you are doing the right things, but they provide no reasons to back that up. Worse is when results go the wrong way and there are no reasons to explain why. Armed with this distinction I am currently reviewing all metrics I use! To get a different angle on value adding and waste In manufacturing we define value adding as work which changes the nature, shape or characteristics of the product in line with customer requirements. In the environment of a startup, where it isn’t always clear who the customer is or what they want, a different definition is required. Reis defines value adding tasks as those that help us learn what the customer actually wants, as opposed to what the designer thinks they want. Activities that involve working on flawed assumptions and building products or features that the customer doesn’t require, result in a waste of time, energy, money, resources, passion and skills. This is a clever interpretation that should challenge us to adapt our lean definitions for different environments. To reinforce the value of working in small batches and using pull systems Traditionally designers build and internally test the complete product before release. Unfortunately many new products fail as they have been designed using flawed assumptions. Result – the customer just doesn’t want them. Ries encourages designers to conduct their “build” in small batches – i.e. test one hypothesis or feature at a time to avoid waste. Just like in manufacturing we know that producing in large batches results in waste and hides quality problems. By testing one hypothesis at a time and using the results to guide the next piece of development you introduce a pull system from design. We should now be asking ourselves what other functions and processes can benefit from working in small batches. To strengthen your existing NPI system While Ries’s Lean Startup methodology is largely focussed on organisations doing disruptive innovation, I can see many elements that will strengthen established systems. This includes companies that have partial design responsibility or are build to print. A few examples: Introducing frequent testing cycles involving the customer to test each assumption or development before moving through the stages. Adjusting the options at the gate review to include a Pivot option instead of Re-do. Including a measure on “learning about customer requirements”. Launching a successful product isn’t all about adherence to project plan and budget. I read my borrowed copy twice and then bought one. Now I am lending it to everyone I know! I hope you find it valuable as well. For more information about NPI please see our web site or contact us.
October 28, 2015 Industry Forum Blog One of the more common barriers to change we meet when introducing Autonomous Maintenance and Planned Maintenance is the belief that maintenance engineers will become deskilled and jobs cut, and that production operators will be expected to just take on more tasks. It’s important to tackle this misconception right at the beginning of your TPM programme. Although it will take time to gain trust, I have found starting with a straightforward explanation helps to set the scene. After that, your actions will speak louder than words! Make sure you give the same message to AM and PM team members, as they must work in tandem to achieve the change. You can draw up the two sketches shown here to support your message, but do tailor them to suit your audience. Yes – the activities you do will change and so will the skills you need! Use this diagram to show how the mix of skills and activities undertaken by the teams changes over a period of time. On the left you have a representation of the start point. Draw these to show what you think they are in your company at that point. We usually expect changes to occur over a 3 year period. On the right finish the lines at a point to reflect where you plan to be. This will align with your policies. Don’t get hung up about actual numbers. You are trying to show that over a period of years there should be a change in the mix of tasks carried out. Some companies find this phrase helps. “Everybody takes care of something different.” How can we do any more than we do now? It’s not realistic to expect people to just keep doing more. Draw this diagram, block by block from the left, to show how some current, and unrewarding, tasks are got rid of, so that new ones can be introduced. The first block represents the current skills and tasks carried out by operators and the maintenance department. The first thing we have to do is eliminate what we call the difficult, dangerous and dirty tasks, which operators should not have to do. This is achieved using the AM pillar. We are now at position 1. This allows more time for the operators to take on new tasks. In the AM journey these tasks are cleaning, inspection and lubrication. These are transferred from the maintenance team. We are now at position 2. Of course these CIL tasks also prevent the difficult, dangerous and dirty tasks from coming back. So we prevent a return to the start point. Now the maintenance team have time to expand their role and take on new tasks, such as preventative maintenance and developing new maintenance techniques. Position 3 is reached. The benefits Operators spend less time doing repetitive and pointless cleaning up. They can learn and deploy basic maintenance skills, reducing the frustration of running equipment till it breaks and then waiting for it to be fixed. Maintenance engineers move away from a repair based culture and learn how to deploy more sophisticated techniques and technologies. This allows them to spend more time concentrating on maintenance activities that will give improvements. For both teams there is a shift towards a greater proportion of proactive tasks. Hopefully this message will help you to dispel any fears expressed at the start of your TPM journey. Nobody is being deskilled. Time generated is used to make further improvements. For more information about TPM training see our web site or contact us.
October 22, 2015 Industry Forum Blog I think it’s fair to say that accountants love cash and hate risk. Running out of cash is still one of the biggest reasons why companies collapse. Cash is not only needed to start a business but to keep it running. For an accountant, risk starts as soon as cash is turned into something else and lasts until that something else is turned back into cash. So if you want your accountant to support your improvement initiative then you need to demonstrate how it will release cash in the business and manage the risk. For those of us from operations backgrounds this may sound daunting. However if you can show how the techniques you are using link to improving the cash flow cycle, then you have the key. The Cash Flow Cycle For a simple explanation of the cash flow cycle click here. We are going to focus on the steps between paying for employees, facilities and materials to receiving cash back. All the steps in between those two points represent risk; buying materials, holding stock, producing too many parts (overproduction), producing scrap, shipping parts incorrectly, customers cancelling orders or going out of business. Improve the cash flow in two ways Reduce the length of time it takes from paying out to receiving the cash. Minimise the size of the risks along the cycle. Some examples Activities that match production to customer demand; like using Value Stream Mapping to plan and deploy pull systems. This reduces the size of risks incurred by buying and storing inventory and cash tied up in excess WIP and finished goods. Using Set Up Improvement (SMED) to produce smaller batch sizes. This reduces the amount of stock held and releases cash. Using techniques such as Structured Problem Solving, PM Analysis, Quality Maintenance and Six Sigma tools reduces the cash tied up in scrap and the time to complete the cycle. Eliminating the 16 losses using TPM methodology also reduces the time to complete the cycle and amount of cash tied up producing scrap. Activities that create product flow through your value stream reduce the size of the risk associated with WIP, inventory and finished goods. Eliminating waste and minimising non value adding steps Using SMED to level demand and improve flow in areas of fixed capacity. Minimising the amount of information processing. This also reduces the risk of order corruption. Eliminating delays between ordering and manufacture and at load time and despatch time. Reducing the time taken for value adding steps using basic tools such as 5S, 7 Waste, Standardised Work and Visual Management. In summary Taiichi Ohno said, “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time by reducing the non-value adding wastes.” I hope these examples help you to realise how the activities you deploy to improve operations also improve the health of your finances. This understanding will also help you communicate with your accountants in a language they understand. If you want to read more about how lean makes financial sense I recommend Lean Means Beans by Anne Hawkins.
October 14, 2015 Industry Forum Blog When is structured problem solving the right method to use? Most of us probably still remember the pain of tackling our first fearsome quality issue. And if you were a supplier into Ford you will have been using the 8D method.I hope you had more success than I first did! Since then I have also used Practical Problem Solving (preferred by Toyota), PM Analysis and the TPM Quality Maintenance steps. Each method has its pros and cons, and my success rate has improved with practise. However, the most useful thing I learned along the way is that you don’t always have to jump into to root cause analysis! Welcome to the infinity loop. May it save you many hours of painstaking work! The infinity loop In this model normal working is shown as a combination of two cycles; the sustain cycle and the improve cycle. The Sustain Cycle If there are no problems we continue working to the set standards. A problem can be described as the difference between what is happening and what should be happening – a gap to target. If a problem does occur then we need to take action. Step 1 Measure the current situation. We need to check if the problem is a result of the deterioration of standard working conditions and practices. If basic conditions have deteriorated they will have adversely affected the inputs to the process (man, material, machine, method). Therefore the outputs will also have been affected. Step 2 Restore basic conditions. Ensure the 5S conditions of the work place are as required, everyone is working to the Standard Operations and the equipment maintained at the correct standard. We then ask “Has the problem been resolved?” Typically 8/10 problems are resolved by restoring basic conditions. If the answer is yes then we continue round to step 3 in the sustain cycle. Step 3 Return to normal working standards to sustain basic conditions. In these cases we do not need to deploy a structured problem solving technique. Step 4 We complete the cycle by making it easier to maintain the basic conditions so they don’t slip again. However, if the answer is no, the problem isn’t resolved by restoring basic conditions, we follow the cycle on the right hand side. The Improve Cycle is where we deploy our preferred method of structured problem solving.In this diagram the steps of your chosen structure are summarised in steps 3, 4 and 5; carry out root cause analysis, countermeasure the root cause and define improved standards to work to. Again we ask the question “Has the problem been resolved?” If the answer is no, we must go round the improvement cycle again. If the answer is yes, then we return to the sustain cycle and complete Step 6, the original step 3, maintain basic conditions. Step 7, the original step 4, make it easier to maintain the basic conditions. Finally Remember structured Problem Solving can be used proactively to improve a process, as well as to prevent the re-occurrence of a problem. And don’t just stick to quality problems. I have had success using it to solve a range of issues from accident levels to manning problems. If you want to know more about any of the structured Problem Solving techniques mentioned please contact us.
October 7, 2015 Industry Forum Blog Is filling in your boards a tick box exercise or do you use them as a tool to enable improved performance and engage employees? Visual Management Boards are just one of the ways you can communicate with all the levels in your company. By themselves they don’t actually make improvements or, in fact, do that much communicating! They need to be bought to life by people using them and they need to be designed and placed carefully. Here are my top 10 features to consider when designing and using the boards. As well as drawing from personal experience they include the results of research into the use of Visual Management in workplace communications Design Involve the local team of employees in the design and ongoing use of the board. This promotes ownership Keep the information appropriate to the area but do show a clear link to your company policy and area objectives. This brings operational and strategic performance measures together in one place; a key part of the Integration Model Where the workplace has many boards, and they are used as the focal point of daily, weekly and monthly reviews do have a standard overall layout. This makes it easier for users to interpret. The local team still decide the content, but within the layout guidelines.Boards typically contain information on the inputs and outputs of the process (man, material, machine, quality, cost and delivery) as well as improvement and safety.The feature I like on this board is that the chart holders are reversible. Plenty of space for different teams or additional information Ensure the board communicates positive information, not just negative For the information displayed use these three key visual management principles: Use the right graphical tool to convey the data Use colour sparingly, for example just to highlight key features Avoid using excessive borders and boxes; aim at a minimum ink to data ratio. For example use lighter lines instead of black, or none where possible Use Use the board for daily team briefings as well as the scheduled management review meetings. This gets managers away from outdated written reports and into the workplace To aid this process, position the boards close to the place of work, or at a key focal point, where they can be easily gathered around. Boards can be used for non manufacturing areas as well Remember these briefings, or huddles, should be a two way communication process Ensure the information is kept up to date: Appoint a board (or chart) owner Update or draw graphs by hand if you don’t have the necessary time or equipment. This is often the case where short interval monitors are used to manage the process Last, but definitely not least. Use this information to drive the improvement process. If your data isn’t turned into information and acted on to make an improvement, it is just fancy wallpaper We hope these ideas will help you in either creating or improving this aspect of your communication and improvement process. We love to hear and see examples of boards you have found that work particularly well for you. Thank you to KMF for providing this example. If you would like to know more about Visual Management Boards and other management for manufacturers, why not check out our Leadership Development Programme
