"The Value of Vision"

Gwendolyn Galsworth

Industrial Engineer

August 2004, pp. 44-49

This article emphasizes that in order to get the full, sustained value from Lean approaches, Lean must be complemented by the visual approach: "The visual workplace is the language of Lean made visual. The purpose of the visual approach is to identify and eliminate deficits in information through visual solutions covering all work venues and intentional events. A visual workplace is a self-ordering, self-explaining, self-regulating, and self-improving work environment where what is supposed to happen happens on time, every time, because of visual devices."

The visual workplace operates on five levels:

1. Visual order—At level 1 can be found the answer to the questions of where things should be
2. Visual standards—Level 2 focuses on implementing visual standards for what, when, who, how many, and how
3. Visual measures—At level 3 you can find your running scorecards for how you are doing performance-wise
4. Visual controls—At level 4, kanban and other methods to control the process are installed
5. Visual guarantees—At level 5, you have poka-yoke systems that do not allow errors to occur

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