Visual Controls Make "Cents"

As many of you know, in addition to consulting, I am an adjunct professor at a college with a large number of international students. Normally I teach statistics, but recently I had the opportunity of familiarizing newly arrived international students with U.S. cultural and business communications.

As part of the workshop for new international students, I engaged the class in a discussion about what they have found to be problematic since their arrival in the United States. Surprisingly the one reoccurring topic that challenged the students, was our coins.

At first I was stunned. Of all the things in this country, the most challenging to newly arrived foreigners was our coins? After considering this for a moment, it made perfect sense. How?

Think about it, the designed system lacks visual clues; it relies almost entirely on the tribal knowledge of the user. It is hardly intuitive; the smallest coin, the dime, is worth more than the larger penny and nickel! Now combine that with the fact that none of our coins have large, easy to read numbers denoting worth; we can “cents” and understand how this combination can pose problems for newly arrived foreigners.

Given the lack of effective visual controls on the coins, it’s easy to comprehend why the newly arrived find this challenging and frustrating.

Now ask yourself, what in your business is not visually intuitive and causes problems? Simply put, are problems going undetected because the visuals controls in your workplace are ineffective? Can you walk into a material storage location and see what needs to be reordered? Can the leaders tell the status of the business simply by walking through the facility and observing?

Excellent examples of effective visual controls are the arrival and departure boards at an airport. First of all, these boards are easy to use, clearly labeled, and very intuitive. Even if you have never been in an airport before, you can look at the board and obtain the information about your flight. Not only does the board display the information, it will provide visual alerts by flashing when flights are changing status.

This information is not closely held and limited to only the airport’s managers. The status of every flight into and out of the airport is readily available and viewable by all. Just as importantly, the board provides only the necessary information and doesn’t overwhelm the traveler with unnecessary details. The required information is freely placed into the hands of those who need it and problems are easy to see.

Now expand on that concept and apply it your business. Does your staff know the status of inventories, deadlines, and other critical information? Are your visual controls improving information flow and process control?

More importantly, what benefits can you experience from an effective visual workplace?

• Higher job satisfaction – Individuals experience less stress because they have the required information to perform their jobs

• Safer work environment – Walkways are clearly labeled keeping individuals at a safe distance from moving vehicles and machinery

• Higher quality – Fewer defects/errors as problems become easy to see

• Greater efficiencies - Required information/material is readily available resulting in less downtime

• Improved appearance – Workplace is neat and orderly

• Improved Bottom Line – Reduced errors plus greater efficiency equals a better bottom line.

A visual workplace, which is often times associated with a 5S program, should be self-ordering, self-explanatory, and self-regulating.

If your business is experiencing problems because you can’t tell the status of the business simply by walking through and using tools deployed as part of a visual workplace, then I encourage you to consider launching a lean sigma program. It makes “cents.”

Please leave your comments or email me directly at royce.williard@gmail.com

Learn more about the author by checking my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/roycewilliard

 2009, The Williard Group

Photo Source:

Figure 1: Public Domain Photo of U.S. dime. Source: Clipart Graphics

http://www.freeclipartnow.com/money-business/coins/

Promoting the importance of “The Customer” in Lean Times

I saw a quote from Brian Buck (@BrianBuck) on Twitter the other day that really resonated with me.  The quote was attributed to Gandhi and stated ….

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

While most business people would say they agree with Gandi, how many truly promote the importance of “The Customer” within their business?  Is it engrained in their culture?  What do they really know about their clients?  With today’s technology, many businesses capture specific customer data on their clients, but fail to use it!  It cannot be stressed enough that increased customer loyalty can make or break a company in slow economic times.

During times of economic expansion, many companies view customer service as an expense that drains the bottom line.  In lean times, companies cannot afford this type of “relationship arrogance.”  In fact, companies need to maintain and enhance their business relationships.  One way to maintain and grow these relationships is to invest in customer service by ensuring that your customer’s most critical needs/requirements are being fulfilled.

Can Lean Six Sigma tools help you gain an understanding about your customers?  Yes, histograms are a perfect tool to visually display your customer detail or any other data that can be easily ranged into groups.  Classically, a histogram would be defined as a graphic summation and display the frequency of data items in successive bins/classes.  The most common histogram has the dependent variable (frequency) plotted on the vertical axis and the independent variable is plotted on the horizonal axis.  The independent variable data is grouped into bins (data ranges). 

The Lean Six Sigma graph below demonstrates a histogram being used to graphically display the grades of students in an Online Discussion Forum.  In this example, the grade occurring with the highest frequency was B. The histogram also shows that the grades are skewed to the right (toward the lower end of the grading spectrum).

As a histogram is being constructed, it is necessary to group the data into equal size bins/classes.  In the case of the example, the bins are grades.  While the bin groupings are arbitrary, care must be taken when they are established.  Too few or too many bins can distort the conclusions drawn from the data.

Histograms are the perfect tool for looking at frequency of occurrence within groups of data.  When looking specifically at customer information, the applications are endless with potential independent variables such as age, gender, average sale, etc.  Collecting data and not using it is the ultimate waste.

Not recognizing the importance of “The Customer” is equivalent to not unlocking your doors at the start of the business day.  Remember, “The Customer” is a company’s most important asset.  Without customers, you have no business. 

 

To learn more about the Histograms, Lean Six Sigma and Statistical Process Control, please contact the author at royce_williard@williardgroup.com

 

Learn more about the author by visiting my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/roycewilliard

 

Follow the author on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/rwilliard

 

Related Article: “It’s Never About the Number, It Is What the Number is Saying about the Business.” http://bit.ly/13PDem

 

To visit Brian Buck’s blog and see more improvement quotes: http://bit.ly/cbkUg

 

Post Author: Royce Williard

Copyright 2009 The Williard Group