Visual management means anyone walking into an area can tell in a few seconds whether things are normal. Are we ahead or behind? Is anything down? Is someone waiting for help? If you have to open a report or ask around to find out, it isn't visual.
Floor marking, shadow boards, andon lights, kanban cards and an hour-by-hour board with planned against actual output are all visual management. None of it is decoration. The point is to make a problem obvious early, while it's still small.
A board only works if someone acts on it. That's the job of the daily huddle: a short stand-up meeting at the board at the start of the shift. Same time, same place, every day, 10 to 15 minutes. A simple agenda:
- Safety: any incidents or near misses since yesterday.
- Yesterday's results: against target, for safety, quality, delivery, cost and people (SQCDP).
- Problems: what went wrong, and what's in the way today.
- Actions: who does what, by when. Then check the open actions from earlier days.
Keep it standing and keep it short. A huddle that runs 40 minutes turns into a meeting people dread. When a problem needs a long discussion, take it after the huddle with the people who can solve it.
Larger plants connect their huddles in tiers. The team meets first, then supervisors, then the plant manager, so a problem raised on the floor reaches someone who can fix it the same morning.
Your action for today
No huddle yet? Run one tomorrow: 10 minutes at a whiteboard with three columns, yesterday, problems and actions. Already have one? Time it, and count how many of last week's actions are actually closed.
A free daily huddle agenda you can print and use tomorrow:
Daily huddle agenda