Have you ever been shopping for a particular car in a certain color? If so, have you ever noticed how many of those vehicles you start to see on the roads every day? Why is that? Why do we notice certain things after they become an item of interest to us? I think its simple really. We tend to notice what’s important to us. But, what’s important to our team? What’s important to the people doing the job? The people producing the product or processing the information? What information does our team need to know at a glance so they can make timely adjustments to stay on track?

Identifying problems quickly is our best chance to limit the negative effects they can have on our organization. If we use visual controls correctly, we can become better problem solvers. We can’t fix what we don’t know. If we can identify abnormalities quickly, we can begin to correct them without delay. The longer we wait to take corrective action after experiencing irregularities in our organization, the harder it will be to get back on track. If we wait too long it becomes stressful to our team, and expensive to our organization, with overtime hours necessary to meet customer demand.

Some of the most easily identified problems can be traced directly to the fires we seem to be continually putting out. Let’s break the cycle of reactionary problem solving. If we visually share the information our teams need to make informed decisions before a problem gets out of hand, we stand a better chance of avoiding the fire fight altogether. If we want our team to be successful, we need them to be able to recognize abnormalities and adjust in time to avoid a bigger issue. In order for this to happen, we must provide our team with the tools to do so. The tool that can make this happen is Visual Management. Let’s use the sports team scoreboard equivalent in our workplace. Let’s keep an eye on the inning throughout the workday with visual updates showing our status. Don’t wait until the last inning to find out it too late to win the game!