Over the past decade the term "transparency" has become increasingly popular within the political process. Visual Management is intended to increase transparency within the work environment thus improving the timeliness and quality of decisions and performance.
Visual Management is based upon the concept that people retain more information they "see" versus information they have to "read" or "hear". Studies reveal that people retain 40% of the information they "see" versus 10% that they "read" or 20% of that they "hear". By providing critical process information in easy to read, highly visible, graphical format employees will more effectively use the information to make good, consistent decisions within their workplace.
It's increasingly common to find examples of good Visual Management applications within a Manufacturing environment. A basic application will use communication boards to prominently display production schedules and key performance metrics. Additional examples include shadowboards supporting 5S programs; SPC charting for process monitoring; and simple status keys supporting Kanban systems. Each of these examples utilizes the concept that "a picture is worth a thousand words" to communicate the basic information of "What, When, Where and even How".
The application of Visual Management goes far beyond the plant floor and can provide benefit throughout your organization. For example, I'm currently involved in a large scale project transforming an organization. To provide transparency of our program and educate employees of the new direction we've created a Project Management Office. This space is available to all employees and uses visual displays to outline processes, project milestones and status, key performance metrics and alignment with corporate goals. In short, an employee can step into this office and quickly understand why the transformation is important, what we are working on, how we are progressing and how each effort contributes to the bottom line.
Visual Management tools are designed to prominently display information that can easily be seen beyond the immediate work area. The challenge is working with your employees to embrace the value of information transparency towards improving process performance, especially within office settings. Remember to keep the information conveyed as simple as possible and limited to the key necessary to affect performance. Visual Management programs can be undermined with too much "information clutter" overshadowing the necessary visuals.
Good luck as you move forward with applications that best support your key business processes.