Visual management is a form of communication where information is provided through visual artifacts. This type of communication not only allows quick recognition of the information being communicated but also a better understanding than texts could do.
The safety cross is a commonly used visual management tool. A green mark on a given day indicates no incidents or risks were identified. A red day may indicate a “category 1” incident, yellow may indicate a “category 2” incident, and blue may indicate a “near-miss.” The safety cross shows the day-by-day safety issues.
Using the same color code, the “Ben Injured” silhouette indicates which body part was harmed. The silhouette supplements the information provided by the safety cross and displays patterns.
A third layer of information is provided by the work layout. Here again, we use the same color code as with the safety cross and the silhouette. Here, the color dots indicate, where, in the workplace, the safety situations occurred.
The 3 dimensions of visual management and other elements not discussed in this post such as multi-cause-analysis, provide teams with tools to learn as a team, reflect as a team, and act as a team.