“Visual management” seems to be a popular theme. It somehow gets a lot of attention and a lot of budget.
There is a joke in Japan. That is called “Daytime Andon.”
Andon was initially used as lighting equipment at night. When used in the daytime, it uses energy without any effect. It is a symbol of waste. Because of this, “Daytime andon” means those not working or providing value. As we say, “Don’t become a daytime andon.”
How often do we see an andon light flashing without action? How often do we see some fancy screens showing a problem but without action? Does red mean a problem or a favorite color the factory wants to keep on the screen?
The essence of “Visual management” is to highlight all problems and immediately take action by the managers. There are no options to ignore or delay the action.
Taiichi Ohno highlights this essence in this quote.
“Better to take one action than seeing a hundred times.” 百見は一行に如かず
This quote has an original. The original is;
“Better to see once than listen a hundred times.” 百聞は一見に如かず
This is a quote from the history of the Han dynasty. A 70-year-old general was asked his thoughts on the attack on the border. The above quote was the general’s response. The general was immediately sent to the frontline when the emperor heard the response. When the general arrived and saw the situation, he stopped the invasion. From the general’s point of view, there was no separation of seeing and action. Probably, Ohno, too. Ohno had to mention that too many managers don’t take action.
I always remark that “collecting data” is not an independent action.
Too often, I get justification of “no” action since they are collecting data.
“Visual management” means taking initial action based on the accrual basis, not by statistics. I am not saying I don’t collect data. Data can be collected based on an accrual basis. The difference between the two approaches will appear in the lead time. Accrual basis will take immediate action, which means zero lead time to action.
In comparison, the statistics approach requires data collection time, which could be an hour, day, week, month, or year. This lead time creates a distance between the data and the facts, making solving an issue more complex. The longer the time, the more complicated. It is easier to solve an accident in front of you than to solve something in history. As we say, “Do you always remember what you ate three days ago?” It is challenging to remember everything which could have contributed to the problem.
Some argue that we need statistics to highlight which issues are happening more. They will say, “We need to focus on top X issues.” Who defined working on top X issues as good? Do we have proof that the situation will improve if we work on top X issues? No. And the truth is that problems grow. Let’s say there was a semi-broken fixture that produced a defect. We didn’t notice and kept using it. Then, the wear and tear will worsen the fixture and cause disaster. If we had taken the right action on the first piece of defect, we could have avoided the fiasco. We have to work on all problems anyway.
Then there is another argument that “We have too many problems.” We have too many issues because of what? Don’t we have too many problems because we ignored many minor matters in the past? Every problem has a minor signal before a significant problem happens. There is an exciting discovery called Heinrich's law on safety. Many want to discuss whether the ratio in that law is right or wrong. We understand the law as there are always many minor incidents before a significant safety hazard.“Visual management” is to capture those minor signals and take action when it is small. Please don’t use it to train someone to ignore a signal. Poorly managed “Visual Management” will kill an organization by developing habits to ignore small signals.
There is also a question of what would happen if the action were wrong. Ohno answers that in the first two chapters of “Workplace Management.” 【朝令暮改】Do something in the morning and change in the afternoon. If something goes wrong, admit honestly and apologize. But the manager must stay at genba to observe if the change was good or not. Continuously doing something wrong is far worse than trying something different. It would be best if you tried to do something better. But we are humans, so we make mistakes. Don’t let the perfectionist mentality prevent you from taking action.
So, before implementing “Visual Management,” ensure the entire management team is ready to take action. Otherwise, “Visual Management” tools will train people to ignore problems.
Comments