What Should a Visual Management Board Include?

Adding visual management boards to each of your departments is the first step in achieving operational excellence. However, a board is only useful when populated with relevant information, so we’ve put together a list of things that should be included on your visual management boards to ensure they do their job to full effect each day.

The three core inclusions

There are three main things to include on a visual management board: standards, problems and actions. By including this trio of elements, your employees can instantly see the what, the why and the how involved in keeping processes running smoothly.

Standard: Lean principles consider your target performance to be the standard. This way, the information reflects where you currently are compared to where you should be, rather than comparing it to your average performance.

Problem: The key consideration here is that problems can be any size. In fact, the rectifying of the tiniest problems is equally important, as they can snowball into larger errors and disruptions if left unchecked. By continuously searching for problems and clearly identifying them, employees can achieve the next step more smoothly.

Action: What needs to be done to remove problems and achieve the standard? It could be a case of either removing, adding, fixing or fine-tuning a part of the process. If you omit an action from your visual management boards, nothing will ever improve.

Don’t forget the 1-3-10 rule

Visual management boards are founded on the 1-3-10 rule, which follows a simple and memorable format:

Understand the purpose of the board in 1 second
Understand the current status and any problems in 3 seconds
Understand any countermeasures and actions in 10 seconds

This should all be achievable from a distance of a few feet away, which is why visual management boards are large and clearly laid out. As opposed to having to check a clipboard or computer, an employee can simply glance at a visual management board and immediately work out the current standard of the department as well as any problems and actions if applicable.

The different types of VM boards

Whilst all visual management boards should be simple, precise, constantly updated, engaging, logically positioned and easily visible, they do differ in terms of content. The most common examples are 5S boards, continuous improvement boards, performance boards, problem solving boards, Root Cause Analysis boards and SQDIP boards, to name just a few.

To save you time, space and money, we provide a wide variety of pre-designed and bespoke magnetic overlays.

Clarity’s bespoke visual management boards

Take a look at our online shop and you’ll find visual management boards, magnetic overlays, VM accessories and many more tools designed to keep your employees in control of their duties. For more information about how we can help and to book a consultation, get in touch with our team on +44 (0)1482 296451 or fill in our contact form.

What Should a Visual Management Board Include?