Visual Administration and 5’S

Visual administration
Visual Administration is a set of techniques that:

 Expose the waste or Muda so you can eliminate them and prevent their
recurrence.
 They make the organization's operating standards known to all employees so
they can easily follow them.
 Improve the efficiency of the workspace through the organization.

The implementation of these techniques requires 3 steps:

 Organize your workspace using the method known as the 5 S’s (Sort, Tidy,
Clean, Standardize, and Maintain - Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and
Lostain).
 Ensure that all required work standards and related information are visible in
the workplace.
 Control all workplace processes exposing and stopping errors - and
preventing them in the future.

Visual Administration techniques allow the organization to do the following:

1. Improve the quality of the “full-cycle-for-the-first-time” of products or services
by creating an environment that:
 Prevent most defects and errors before they occur.
 Detect errors and defects that occur and allow a quick response and
correction.
 Establish and maintain standards of zero errors, defects and waste
 2. Improve work space safety and employee integrity:
 Removing risks.
 Improving communication by sharing information openly throughout the
organization.
 Conforms to all work standards, reporting deviations, and responding
quickly to problems.
3. Improve all the efficiency of your workplace and equipment, allowing your
organization to meet customer expectations.
4. Reduce total costs.
Purpose
Creating an organized, efficient and clean workplace that has clear work processes
and standards helps the organization reduce costs. Also, employee job satisfaction
improves when their work environment allows them to easily do their job well.
Areas to which it focuses
Control over manufacturing or business processes can be gained effectively by
focusing on the following areas:

 Value-added activities. These are activities that change the form or function
of the products or services.
 Information distribution. It is the distribution of the right information to the right
people at the right time, in the most useful way possible.
 Inspections at the source. The purpose of these inspections is to discover the
source of errors that cause defects in either products or business processes.
 Quantities of material and flow. All work operations must be in correct
amounts of material or process steps.
 Health and safety. All work processes, facilities and design and procedures
of equipment (machinery) should contribute to maintaining a safe and healthy
workplace.

It is more effective to focus on the areas listed above and their relationship with six
aspects of production or business processes:
1. The quality of the materials that arrive, are in-process, and are going out.
2. Work processes and methods of operation.
3. Equipment, machines, and tools.
4. Storage, inventories, and supplies.
5. Security and safety training.
6. Information distribution.
To have control of the processes, you must understand the "current three":
 The current place or location where the process occurs.
  Current workers who are in that location.
 The current processes that are carried out in these locations.
Mapping the processes will help to understand the current three.
Implementation
Before you begin implementing visual management techniques, be sure to do the
following:
 Choose an employee from each work team that heads the program and
remove any barriers your team encounters.
 Train all employees involved in the visual management techniques detailed
below.
 Tell all people in all areas of your plant or office that they will be involved in
the program. Also give "notice" to other employees or departments that
could be affected.
 Create storage areas (“red labels”) to maintain material that will be removed
from work sites in your plant or building.
 Create a location for supplies that you will need as you progress through
your visual management program.
 Coordinate the program with your maintenance department and any other
department you need support from.
 Be sure that all employees understand and follow the safety regulations and
procedures of the organization and whenever changes are made.

Visual control
Andón is a system that demonstrates the problems or defects in the process from
lights and sounds that are activated by the worker himself (Andean rope) stopping
the line and spending a "minimum" time to correct the abnormal condition. This also
helps the person responsible to investigate the root of the problem and take
measures in time to prevent the defect or abnormality continue to occur. If you
cannot control this then we are not controlling the process and we will focus our
efforts on analyzing finished products with possible deficiencies or defects.
Visual controls are closely related to standardization processes. A visual control is a
standard represented by a graphic or physical element, colored or numerical and
very easy to see. Standardization is transformed into graphics and these become
visual controls. When this happens, there is only one place for each thing, and we
can immediately say if a particular operation is proceeding normally or abnormally.
A visual control is used to easily inform the following topics among others:

 Site where the elements are located

 Frequency of lubrication of a device, type of lubricant and place to apply it
 Suggested standards for each of the activities to be carried out in a team or
work process
 Where to locate the material in process, final product and if it exists, defective
products
 Site where the elements of cleaning, cleaning and classified waste should be
located
 Motor rotation direction
 Electrical connections
 Direction of rotation of actuation buttons, valves and actuators
 Flow of the liquid in a pipe, marking it, etc.
 Pressure gauge operating strips (standards)
 Where to locate the calculator, pen folders, pencils in the workplace