Do companies with greater deployment of participation systems use Visual Management more extensively? An exploratory study

One of the most important enablers of continuous improvement sustainability is ease of communication, and doing so in a way that can be understood by all employees and allows information to flow rapidly throughout the company. Visual Management (VM) provides significant benefits in communication and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of production research 2014-03, Vol.52 (6), p.1755-1770
Main Authors: Jaca, Carmen, Viles, Elisabeth, Jurburg, Daniel, Tanco, Martín
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communications systems
Continuous improvement
Effectiveness studies
improvement teams
Indicators
Information sharing
Literature reviews
Management
Operations research
Quality control
Standardization
suggestion systems
Sustainability
Technology adoption
Visual
Visual control
Visual Management
Workplaces
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Summary:One of the most important enablers of continuous improvement sustainability is ease of communication, and doing so in a way that can be understood by all employees and allows information to flow rapidly throughout the company. Visual Management (VM) provides significant benefits in communication and standardisation which boosts the effectiveness of improvement systems. This article presents an in-depth literature review about the concept of VM and its benefits, and provides results from an exploratory study carried out in the Basque Country that aims to ascertain the usage of VM in 52 companies. Based on a literature review, 20 different VM elements were identified for improving the workplace. The implementation of these elements was studied, as was the relationship of VM with employee participation systems. The results of this study show a general moderate implementation of VM tools in companies with implementation levels differing according to company size. Some of the lowest scores are detected in the areas of visual control of quality, the displaying of indicators and process visibility. Moreover, statistical differences were identified between the implementation of suggestion systems and improvement teams and the implementation level of VM tools.
ISSN:0020-7543
1366-588X
DOI:10.1080/00207543.2013.848482