Technological classification of visual management for its enhancement: An application in chemical plant

Nowadays, Kaizen technology has been widely utilized as one of the tools of Kaizen activity. However development of it has been mostly performed under the support of experts which have the know-how to apply Kaizen technology. One relevant way to realize the progress of Kaizen activity without their support is to establish an approach enabling systematic technology development. In this paper, especially focusing on Visual Management technology as one of the Kaizen technologies, a technological level of Visual Management technology as one guideline of the approach is discussed. The proposed technological level consists of the following six levels from primitive level to advanced level: (1) visualization of unusual phenomena, (2) visualization of root cause, (3) visualization of spill-over effect, (4) visualization of procedure to cope with the problems, (5) visualization of real time action sequence for problem solving and (6) visualization of 100% normality. Two case studies are performed to assure the relevance of the proposed level by focusing on Kaizen projects of chemical plant. Then the proposed technological level is qualified by experts as useful method for education/training against manufacturing workers through collaboration with a factory eager to implement Visual Management technology.