For manufacturers that want to benefit from lean manufacturing methods, whiteboards are ideal for highlighting goals and tracking progress.
Your manufacturing company has goals, which should be clearly communicated to employees. With goals highlighted on a whiteboard, employees will know what’s expected of them, and a level of accountability will be added.
When written on a whiteboar
d, the goals can easily be updated when needed, and progress can easily be kept current.
According to commentary by Pennsylvania company Bulwark Acquisition, which focuses on operational improvements in businesses, a whiteboard visual management system “should let you know if your business is ready to deliver on its safety, quality, delivery and cost goals.”
The company goes on to note: “the system gives you updates early and often if you are off course giving you and your time to correct the situation before an important customer deliverable is missed, or a significant quality issue is delivered to your customers.”
Simplicity and consistency are important in developing a visual management system. Simplicity allows easy understanding of the information, and consistency ensures that all company departments are following the same tracking.
“People shouldn’t need to stand at the visual management system for hours a day just to get a quick glimpse at the health of the unit,” the Bulwark Acquisition article says.
Lean production boards work with a variety of lean processes, including 5S, Kaizen, Corrective Action Programs, and others.
While the information can be presented on wall-mounted whiteboards, Bulwark Acquisition suggests the use of mobile boards while can be placed at areas that are the focus of improvement efforts, and then moved to the next improvement-focus station.
EVERWhite offers a wide variety of high quality whiteboards that are guaranteed not to stain for a lifetime. We also manufacture custom designed whiteboards. Those custom whiteboards can include any images or wording you want for goal identification and tracking.
Dan Griffin is general manager of EVERWhite, a U.S. manufacturer and seller of whiteboards and tack boards used for teaching, coaching, planning, collaboration and tracking. Along with his expertise in the use of whiteboards, Dan excels in leadership, new product development, business operations, continuous improvement and product marketing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a focus on marketing, from Temple University.
