Background:
The maintenance division of this national organisation was at the start of their Lean journey. At the top of the business they had agreed to start by deploying visualisation to their maintenance sites eventually to lead to a tiered system of communication from bottom to top.
Situation:
Although the deployment plan had been communicated through the organisation there was limited knowledge and experience of visualisation and Lean techniques. Staff and managers were busy with day to day operations and needed convincing of the need to take time out of their day to support the creation and maintain the visual system.
Task:
The initial task across 3 maintenance sites (250 staff each) was to set up 3 visual management systems that were fully aligned and synchronised with the national plan and yet catered for the local variances that naturally occur in a big organisation.
Actions:
Leadership training workshops were delivered to provide Lean awareness and a deep dive into visual systems. Each leader was subsequently personally coached on the information they needed to provide for the regular meetings. The visual meetings were led by the senior leader who was coached through the system, both before and after the meeting.
Results:
The system was delivered across the 3 sites successfully within 3 months. It was then expanded upwards to include the area and regional teams. After 6 months, the tiered visualisation system was fully deployed, with meetings taking place weekly with 90% + attendance and all boards updated with the latest information. This laid the foundations for problem solving and subsequent process improvements to be initiated.