Visual Management Principle: No Standard No Kaizen

No Standard No Kaizen is a common saying in lean and process improvement circles.

The principles of Visual Management are related to each other, with the over-arching goal of the following:

1. Visual Management Makes Problems Visible
2. Visual Management helps to immediately distinguish “normal” versus “abnormal” conditions
3. Visual Management helps us to respond immediately

But, for us to know “normal versus “abnormal” conditions, there must be a standard.

A Basis for Comparison

A standard can be described the picture below:

The image above shows a hill, a wedge, and a ball.  Each element represents the following concepts:

1. Hill represents Improvement
2. Wedge represents Standard Work
3. Ball represents the thing we’re trying to improve – product, process, service – whatever

Once we improved the process, service,or product with Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), then the newly-improved process is standardized via the wedge, or standard work.  Then, we continually improve via PDCA.  And whenever we do, we standardize the new process.

A Standard allows us to have a basis for comparison and allows us to see what is “normal” versus “abnormal” conditions.  Without a standard, we don’t know and cannot tell what condition our process, service, or product is in.