Seeing is believing: creating a Visual Workplace starts with a war on waste

Paperboard Packaging, Feb, 2004 by Scott Ellis

Any tool that allows team members, suppliers, or even customers to see how well the process is performing, will sustain improvement with built in accountability. One such tool is the Andon board, which visually displays meaningful real-time production data to the people who need it.

Two Results

Spirit is another way of saying morale. By working through the activities and agreements of 7S, many of the communication barriers between shifts and departments are broken down. The crews experience a new level of ownership for their machines and responsibility to the customers they serve. They feel more like a team, they take more pride in the work place, and they find it easier to communicate and work together.

As people communicate and behave as a team, it is no accident that Safety improves. They begin to watch out for each other. They have removed the clutter with its trip hazards and poor sight lines that complicate the work place.

Productivity, morale, and safety increase as people focus on process improvement. They learn to shift the focus from product defects to building a better process. The Visual Workplace assists all team members in attaining a new perspective of manufacturing. Even skeptics begin to see the process and believe that they can improve it. In the Visual Workplace, seeing really is believing.

7S

* Sort

* Set in Order

* Shine

* Standardize

* Sustain

* Spirit

* Safety

Scott Ellis is co-leader of [P.sup.2], (pronounced psquared) an implementation team for Lean strategies. He and his colleague, technical engineering specialist Leslie Pickering, show companies how to improve process and people systems. For more information, visit www.psquaredusa.com.