213 Seconds to Better Visual Management in 2017

Want a suggestion for a great New Year's Resolution? How about better Visual Controls?

One of the privileges of leading great organizations is the constant opportunity to nurture new ideas coming from the team’s you lead. I’ve found that sustainable superior performance depends on the ability of front line leadership to quickly identify critical information surrounding a process and enable a timely response to any deviations from the plan. 

I’d like to share a great idea that came from the Scott Safety Global Operations team in response to my challenge to improve Visual Controls in all their factories; an idea that came to be known as the 3:33 Rule.

The idea is simple - and extremely powerful! For every process being monitored there should be a visual board nearby that conforms to the following criteria:

1. STATUS! The status of the process should be obvious with only a 3-second look. If you can't tell if the process is "on glide slope" and in control with a brief glance, the visual needs to be improved.
2. ROOT CAUSE! If something is amiss, you should be able to understand what is causing the problem in less than 30-seconds. Half a minute is plenty of time for the process owner to succinctly and accurately describe what has caused the deviation, and tie it to a root cause. If that can't be communicated in the time allotted, the team needs to sharpen their focus.
3. CORRECTIVE ACTION! The corrective action(s) should be clear to the reviewer with less than 3-minutes of study. This should consist of an explanation of the driver metrics influencing the result metric in question and the actions taken to mitigate any short-term impacts as well as to return the process to the planned operating state.  If the corrective action does not predict when the process will be back in control, it needs more work.

What I love about this technique is that it opens the door for creativity and innovation on the part of the process owners while providing a simple, standard, and repeatable framework to communicate expectations. Once implemented, you may find, as Scott Safety did, that visual controls will rapidly mature and process owners will assist each other in spreading the most effective ideas for managing processes more rapidly than could be done with a rigid “one size fits none” approach of prescriptive work instructions.

Try applying the 3:33 Rule to visual controls in your business. If they don’t meet the 213 second criteria…challenge your teams to get creative until they do. 

I think you’ll find that your process controls will tighten up, process owner engagement will improve, and your front line managers will spend more time helping their teams tackle their most important challenges in the coming year. 

That’s a pretty good resolution for 2017, don't you think?