This page was created and maintained by Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu at the School of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, USA.He will continually update the page as his time permitted. Thanks for your visit. Mail your comments and suggestions to: chu@ist.psu.edu.

What is Visual Control?
Potential Benefits of Visual Control.
Guidelines for Practicing Visual Control.
Daily Examples of Visual Control.
Procedure for Implementing Visual Control.
Companies that Practiced Visual Control.
Visual Control in Japanese.
Reading List of Visual Control.

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Last Updated: October 21, 1996.

What is Visual Control?

Visual control are means, devices, or mechanizms that were designed to manage or control our operations (process) so as to meet the following purposes:

• make the problems, abnomalities, or deviation from standards visible to everyone and thus corrective action can be taken immediately,
• display the operating or progress status in a easy to see format.
• provide instruction.
• convey information.
• provide immediate feedback to people.

Visual control (VC) has known to people in several other terms. For instance, visibility management, management by visibility, management by sight. The use of VC can be found in the following categories of tasks:

• Awareness Revolution.
• Combined Use with 5S.
• Office/service Management.
• Operations and Engineering Management(e.g., dispatching, shop floor control, project management).
• Management, control, and Maintenance of Tools and Equipment.
• Quality Management (e.g., control charts, cause-effect diagrams, histograms, etc.).
• Safety warning and Management of Working Enviroment.
• Cost and Profit Evaluation.

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Potential Benefits of VC

Implementing VC in the plant would help the companies to exposing abnormaliies, problems, deviations, waste, unevenness, and unreasonability to people, thus corrective actions can be taken immediately to:

• correct the problems,
• reduce manufacturing costs,
• reduce possible waste,
• shorten production lead time and thus keep the delivery due date.
• reduce inventory.
• ensure a safe and comfortable working environment.
• increase company's profit.

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Guidelines for Practicing Visual Control

The main purpose of visual control is to organize the working area such that people (even outsiders) can tell whether things are going well or are amiss without the help of expert. Visual control can be implemented using either the actual or analog items.

Actual Items:

• Designate a Location (position) for each item.
• Indicate Quantity (or maximum level of inventory).
• Distinguish Item from each other.
• Specify Form (Document).

Analog Items:

• Colors.
• Shapes (Contour).
• Symbols.
• Characters (Verbal).
• Numbers.
• Graphs.
• Electronic Lights.
• Sound.
• Touch.
• Smell.
• Taste.

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Implementation Procedure of VC

Depending on company's situation, the VC can be implemented in different manners. However, many companies felt that the following procedure is quite effective:

1. Organize the program committee. (PLAN)
2. Develop a plan and budget. (PLAN)
3. Collect and develop examples and cases.
4. Publicly announcement the start of the program. (DO)
5. Provide training and education to employees. (DO)
6. Select a day and everybody apply VC in his/her own working area. (DO)
7. Evaluate the results of VC. (CHECK)
8. Self-Examination and Take corrected actions. (ACTION)

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Visual Control in Japanese

The Japanese characters of visual control are:

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Reading List

The topic is more practical than theoretical oriented; therefore, you can only find related references from more practitioners-oriented books, magazines or newspapers. By the way, if you read Japanese, you may find tons of articles and examples from the Japanese Factory Management () Magazine.

Books:

1. Greif, H., Visual Factory: Building Participation Through Shared Information, Productivity Press Inc., Portland, OR., 1989.

2. Hirano, H., JIT Factory Revolution: A Pictorial Guide to Factory Design of the Future, Productivity Press, Portland, OR, 1987. pp. 174-197 (Chapter 13). ($50)

3. Hirano, H., JIT Implementation Manual: The Complete Guide to Just-in-Time Manufacturing, Productivity Press, Portland, OR., pp. 535-561 (Chapter 9). ($975)

4. Hirano, H., 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace: The Sourcebook for 5S Implementation, Productivity Press, Portland, OR, 1995. ($85)

5. Hirano, H. (Instructional Design by Melanie Rubin), 5S for Operators: 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace, Productivity Press, Portland, OR, 1996. ($25)

6. Kobayashi, I., 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement, Productivity Press, Portland, OR, 1995. (Key 1). ($50)

7. Monden, Y., Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time, Second Edition, Industrial Engineering and Management Press, Norcross, GA, 1993. pp. 199-219 (Chapter 13).

8. Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun (ed.), Visual Control Systems, Factory Management Series, Productivity Press Inc., 1995.

9. Osada, T., 5S's: Five Keys to a Total Quality Control Environment, Asia Productivity Organization, Tokyo (distributed by Quality Resources, White Plains, NY), 1991. Chapter 7, pp. 137-155.

10. Suzaki, K., The New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement, The Free Press, NY., 1987. pp. 107-112.

11. Wantuck, K. A., Just In Time for America, The Forum Ltd., Milwaukee, WI, 1980. pp. 58-64.

Videos:

1. 5S: Five Steps to Shaping up the Shop Floor, Productivity Press, Portland, OR. ($1,200)

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Mail your comments to: Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu chu@ist.psu.edu.