Make it Visual

The term make it visual is often utilized by P.I.P.’s (people who make their living from utilizing tools of process improvement).These people also speak fancy statistical terms(ANOVA, T test , regression) , a sprinkling of Japanese words(Gemba , Kaizen, Poka Yoka) and the word “add value” is most used. This makes me think that if we actually added a half a percent of value every time we said the “word”, all of the processes in this universe would be at least 90% efficient and we would have excess money left over for research for cancer and the multitude of diseases that mankind does not know how to fix …

Coming back to the point, one of the goals of the Toyota production system is to make processes and work as simple as possible. One of the tools used to make work easier is to take elements in the process and make them very visual. ‘

Ø An example, in the case of driving on the freeway, we have white stripes separating lanes which are an easy visual for the driver to follow and stay in his/her lane.
Ø Mile indicators indicating how far you have traveled and overhead signs , helping decide what exit one needs to take to reach their destination.
Ø Speed limit signs which define what is your maximum and minimum permissible speed.
Ø In the automobile , one has their gas gage telling you how much gas is left in the tank enabling you to make a decision whether you need to fill gas or not.

How can we apply this concept to our daily lives? Keys , we cannot live without our keys .They could be office keys, car keys, house keys , garage keys desk keys and I could go on and on . I personally carry about 7-8 keys on me all the time . So how do I ensure that I waste minimum time looking for these keys every time I leave the house. I place my bunch on a basket that holds the keys right at the door so that every time I leave the house they are right there in the basket , next to the door. You could also have a key holder with a label identifying what the key is used for.

One might think that why do I need to spend time to organize well the answer is simple , it saves you money in the long run , it is not just the minutes you save every time. For something which is not very expensive , it is also human tendency to buy and replace , which means time that could have been spent somewhere else is spent in the activity of traveling to the store , looking for a replacement , buying a replacement and keeping it in a disorganized manner only to repeat the vicious cycle all over again. So do yourself a favor make it visual and let the funds stay in your account.

Another good example are monthly bills, if one has a paper calendar , you can easily highlight the dates, when you have to have the bills paid by .This can be done a year/six months in advance .Just circle the day of the month with a red sharpie and identify why the date has been highlighted .This will ensure that bills are always paid on time and the gas company does not need to send out a collection agency for you. It is part of normal human common cause variation to forget , making it visual minimizes damages as a result of the forgotten elements and sometimes error proofs basic mistakes.


That’s all I had for now so folks remember “make it visual”