The implementation of visual management to engage operators

How to mobilize all the actors of a shop floor? How to give more autonomy to the operators and encourage decision making? How to give the whole team the same level of information?

Visual management is undoubtedly the answer to these questions.

As a performance lever, visual management is part of a continuous improvement approach and plays an essential role in shop floors. It allows an immediate and comprehensible visualization by everyone, managers and operators, of the state of the workshop via graphic and dynamic dashboards in real time.

What is visual management?

Visual management is used in the context of continuous improvement processes. Its objective is to disseminate information in a tangible, understandable and memorable way in order to help decision making. It is based on symbols, images, tables… Visual management facilitates the sharing of information and encourages exchanges between team members. It makes information accessible to all in real time.

Managers, operators : all concerned by visual management

Visual management concerns all the members of the shop floor from the operator to the manager. The manager builds, in collaboration with the other users, the right visual management tools. His role does not stop at the choice and implementation of visual management tools. He is also the guarantor of their sustainability. In order for visual management actions to be efficient, the manager must ensure that all team members correctly understand the resulting information. With visual management, managers and operators start from the same information base and know their scope of action. The operator gains autonomy by having access to key information related to his daily tasks: progress/objectives… By making information visible and accessible in real time, visual management allows the operator to immediately implement corrective actions in case of production drift for example.

From traditional board to digital visual management

With digitalization, the traditional board tends to be replaced by screens. But if the broadcasting medium changes, the questions to be asked in the context of the implementation of visual management remain the same:

• What information is disseminated?
• Who are the recipients of this information?
• What perimeters should be taken into account: machine, workshop, line, plant, etc?
• How and where is the information distributed?

Several tools and methods are used in visual management. Kanban, Mind Mapping, 5S… the choice is made according to the needs.

As for the data to be displayed, they can be :

• Operational : WO, setpoints, documentation
• Performance indicators : OEE, rate, quality rate, quantity
• Quality : Scrap, Pareto analysis
• Maintenance : Downtimes evolution, losses pareto

Once the information to be disseminated has been defined, it remains to choose the medium of dissemination. There is the traditional whiteboard, on which the updating of data is often tedious. This display medium requires collecting the data, ensuring its accuracy, compiling it, calculating the indicators and finally transferring the results to the board. The information is updated at the beginning of the day or at the beginning or end of the week.

With Astn’go, visual management goes digital

It is displayed on large screens in the heart of the shop floor (but also on tablets or operator stations). All important information is displayed in real time and accessible to everyone. A tool like Astn’go allows to collect data and to display them on screen easily. The operator can see the speed of its machine and the number of units produced at any given time. The manager follows its performance indicators.

A great communication tool, visual management allows the sharing of information and “knowledge”. It encourages exchanges between team members. It allows for greater reactivity by alerting teams in real time in case of problems within the shop floor. By digitizing visual management, the workshop is transformed to enter the Factory 4.0.

In addition to the dashboard dedicated to the operator terminal, the Astn’go subscription allows you to build a custom dashboard that you can broadcast on a large TV screen in the shop floor. With the Analysis and data broadcasting extension, there is no limit to the number of dashboards and you can assemble them to build presentations that can be broadcast automatically in the floor shop or as a support for SIM meetings.