Creating Effective Hourly Display Boards
Frankfort, IL (PRWEB) July 31, 2013 -- Using Hourly Boards (a.k.a. 60-Minute Boards or Production Boards) is a great way to keep a team informed on whether production is on-target, ahead or behind. One advantage of using a manual display board is that a person has to take responsibility to write the actual hourly production number on the board. This is a tactile process – a person has to grab a dry-erase marker, uncap it and write the actual hourly production number on the board. Now that person and the team own that number. 5S Supply created a fully customizable do-it-yourself kit - Hourly Board Kit.
The first step is to determine what information you would like displayed and the size of the board. A 3’ L x 2’ H magnetic dry-erase board works well. Common items displayed on the board include: the time element, planned number of units, the actual number of units completed, and an area to write notes or comments. To visually enhance this experience a green marker should be used when the production number is met or exceeded (along with a congratulatory note would be nice). A red marker should be used whenever the target or planned number is not achieved along with an explanation why and a proposed countermeasure. The target number can be written in black and notes for the team can be in blue. These visual indicators will make it simple and easy for the people on the team to get a grasp of the situation quickly and without any guessing. Additional information near the top of the board may include things like which work area, cell or workstation this board is for, the date or shift. If there are multiple shifts, instead of trying to write down the different start-end times consider just using Hour 1, 2, 3, and so on. Also consider putting on the board who is the team leader, supervisor, manager or value stream manager.
The key to making these boards effective is to use them consistently. If the information is old or not up-to-date the team will not see the need for it. Select the information that is most important to the team, setup the hourly board, test it out and improve it.
Stop by http://www.5Ssupply.com for more information on how to apply lean principles to improve any workplace. Contact 5S Supply at 888 4 LEAN 5S (888-453-2657) or info(at)5Ssupply(dot)com. 5S Supply is the premier provider of Lean supplies, training and services.
Jennifer Molski, 5S Supply, http://www.5Ssupply.com, 815-469-5678, [email protected]
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