{"id":705,"date":"2023-10-02T02:50:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T02:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=705"},"modified":"2023-12-07T21:20:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T21:20:19","slug":"visual-boards-application","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=705","title":{"rendered":"Visual Boards Application"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Darla had just arrived at her favourite caf\u00e9 when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Turning around, she saw a face that she hadn\u2019t seen since university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPaul! This is a surprise! It\u2019s been\u2026 wow, it\u2019s been nearly 10 years since I saw you last! How have you been?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla had been in many of the same classes as Paul, and they had ended up working together on a lot of their coursework. Sometimes, Paul was helping Darla, sometimes it had been the other way around, but they had always made an excellent team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul was grinning ear to ear. \u201cI saw that old satchel, and I thought to myself, Who do I know that carries a relic like that around<\/em>? Why, it must be Darla!<\/em> I\u2019ve been pretty good, actually. I just got a job with ATDG Limited \u2013 I\u2019m their new operations manager.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImpressive,\u201d Darla nodded. \u201cLet me just get my coffee, then tell me all about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once she had her usual oat milk latte, Darla made her way over to the table Paul was sitting at. Paul shifted some papers to one side as she sat down, and Darla saw what looked like task lists.
\u201cSo, what\u2019s it like at ATDG?\u201d Paul smiled. \u201cIt\u2019s good. I\u2019ve only been there a few weeks, but the operations team are all good people. Some of the other managers aren\u2019t all they could be\u2026\u201d Paul\u2019s smile faded a little. \u201c\u2026 but they\u2019re probably doing their best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla raised an eyebrow quizzically. \u201cYou\u2019ve only been there a few weeks, and you\u2019re already feeling something is a bit off? I\u2019ve got to be honest, Paul, this doesn\u2019t sound as wonderful as I\u2019d hoped. What\u2019s going on?\u201d Paul shrugged, clearly feeling uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s nothing, really. It\u2019s just\u2026 the ops team isn\u2019t performing as well as they probably could. I haven\u2019t asked, but I get the feeling the last ops manager was let go because he couldn\u2019t turn them around. And some of the other managers have been saying things that make me think they don\u2019t expect me to last long either. It\u2019s a bit discouraging, you know? Especially since I\u2019ve only just started there. I mean hey, give me a chance to make my own mistakes instead of the ones I inherited!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul had always tended to try to defuse and deflect things by making jokes, but Darla was a bit concerned about her old friend. She frowned at the man sitting across the table from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis actually sounds kind of serious, Paul. It sounds like your colleagues don\u2019t have confidence in you, and if they don\u2019t have confidence in you, they might not support you if you try to change anything. What\u2019s going on with the ops team?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul shifted uneasily in his seat. \u201cOh\u2026 it\u2019s probably just because I\u2019m new there, y\u2019know? It just\u2026 it seems to take all my time trying to keep track of what\u2019s going on in operations, and even then, half the time it turns out that the information I get doesn\u2019t match what\u2019s happening. I have to make assumptions about what\u2019s happening, or going to happen, based on all these lists.\u201d Paul gestured at the papers at the side of the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHmmm.\u201d Darla considered the situation. \u201cYou\u2019ve tried delegating stuff to the supervisors, I imagine?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYep. It\u2019s not really practical, they don\u2019t have the overview that would let them act in an informed way. It\u2019s not their fault, of course, more the way things are running\u2026 or not running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo how do things run?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, we start by giving the guys out in the factory priority lists, so they can get on with something even if a supervisor isn\u2019t there to tell them what to do,\u201d Paul explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat makes sense,\u201d Darla nodded. \u201cAre you saying it doesn\u2019t work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEh\u2026\u201d Paul sighed. \u201cIt kind of works, for a while\u2026 but we\u2019re trying to keep the lists short, y\u2019know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething they can refer to if they get stuck, not a huge, big poster beside each machine. So of course they run into things the guy who made the list \u2013 me or one of the supervisors \u2013 didn\u2019t predict, so there are no instructions about it. When that happens, they have to put that job to the side and carry on with something else. Maybe there\u2019s a problem with that job too, so they put that one aside as well. They end up processing jobs out of sequence, which doesn\u2019t match the priority lists, which means that far too often we don\u2019t actually know what\u2019s being worked on or when a job will finish. It\u2019s really embarrassing to have to say that to the other managers, let me tell you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOuch!\u201d Darla winced. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s not going to help their confidence levels. What have you tried to deal with that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul leaned back in his chair glumly. \u201cThe obvious thing was to do without the lists and have me or the supervisors personally assign the next job to each person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla shook her head sympathetically. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of running around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is, and it didn\u2019t even help!\u201d Paul leaned forward again, with short, sharp gestures showing his frustration. \u201cBecause if we assign everything personally, the machine operators might know what to do now, but they don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming up next, do they? So if anything unexpected happens, they need a supervisor to get things going again, and when they get to the end of a job they just stop and wait for the supervisor to come around and tell them what to do next. And again, it\u2019s not their fault, because that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve told them to do! But we end up with output dropping like it\u2019s gone over a cliff, and it\u2019s not much fun reporting that to the other managers, either! Not when they can see people standing idle out in the factory!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t imagine it is\u2026\u201d Darla\u2019s voice trailed off as she thought. It sounded like Paul was pretty stuck. Either option left him and the operations department looking bad, and if he didn\u2019t improve matters fast, he was going to have a miserable time for as long as he lasted in his role as operations manager\u2026 which might not be long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Darla sighed and shook her head. \u201cSorry, Paul, I don\u2019t have any brilliant ideas. I\u2019m not an ops girl, and I don\u2019t even hang around with the ops manager where I work. All I can tell you is how they do things in our factory. That seems to work OK \u2013 at least, they don\u2019t have the problems you\u2019re talking about \u2013 but you\u2019d have to see whether it would work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDarla, at this point I would seriously consider ideas from a raccoon who claimed to be an architect, if it had anything that worked in an operations context somewhere! How do they manage things where you are?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Darla shrugged. \u201cThey have a big visual board at one side of the factory floor. When a job is released, it gets placed on the board at the bottom, and it moves up the board as time goes by. I think the board has on it the next week or so of work, but don\u2019t quote me on that. Like I said, I\u2019m not an ops girl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInteresting\u2026\u201d Paul pursed his lips and looked thoughtful. \u201cSo\u2026 how does this help, exactly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, from what I can see, the supervisors just have to keep the visual board up to date. If a job gets cancelled or a priority changes, they rearrange what\u2019s on the board, and as jobs change status \u2013 you know, in progress, paused, completed \u2013 that gets indicated too. The people out in the factory look at the board to know what they should be doing next. As for the effects\u2026 well, everyone seems to know what they should be doing, the supervisors don\u2019t have to run around telling everyone what to do next, and it\u2019s an accurate picture of the state of the jobs as they progress through the factory. It seems like a good way of doing things, I\u2019m honestly a bit surprised you don\u2019t have anything like it where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul shook his head. \u201cWe don\u2019t, but I\u2019m going to try to set up something like that when I get back. It can\u2019t be any worse than what we have now, and at least it\u2019s something new to try. And if it actually works\u2026 well, that might help me turn things around in the operations team!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSounds good,\u201d Darla agreed. \u201cLet me know how it goes. And maybe we can catch up again sometime, when some of the chaos at work has died down a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul nodded and smiled as he stood and started collecting his papers. \u201cI will. We\u2019ve got nearly 10 years to catch up on, hopefully we won\u2019t always have to talk about work!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla\u2019s work increased significantly in the following week, and it was almost a month before she managed to arrange another meeting with Paul. When she finally made it to the coffee shop, she found that he had already ordered coffee for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn oat milk latte. That\u2019s what you were having last time, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Darla smiled. \u201cThanks. With this, I might just survive until the afternoon. How are things going for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul was looking a lot more relaxed than the last time they met, and he shot Darla a grateful glance. \u201cA lot better than they were. I\u2019ve got you to thank for it too, because you got me thinking about visual boards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla took a sip of her coffee. \u201cThey made a difference, then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh yeah, it\u2019s huge! Like the difference between night and day; there\u2019s just no comparison. It\u2019s so much easier to see what people are working on and how far along it is, and if things get rescheduled there\u2019s no drama because it\u2019s all up there on the wall. We don\u2019t need to make assumptions about what jobs are where, either. When they finish a job the machine operators just look for the next one on the board, and if they can\u2019t make progress, they indicate that on the ticket \u2013 all the supervisors have to do is keep the visual board up to date. It\u2019s amazing, you should see it\u2026 ah, but if you want to see it you can just go down to the factory where you work, can\u2019t you? Either way, Darla, I owe you a lot for putting me on to this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd how are the other managers responding?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul laughed. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s like night and day. It was like they didn\u2019t see much point in being friendly before because they thought I\u2019d be gone soon, but now they seem to realise I\u2019m one of the good guys. They support me on pretty much everything, these days. The sales manager was talking about setting up a visual board in their office the other day, which probably tells you everything you need to know!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood. I\u2019m glad to hear those visual boards have helped you get control of things in operations. It sounds like they make a big difference in terms of visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey do,\u201d Paul nodded. \u201cI\u2019ve even had a couple of supervisors say that they can tell what the situation will be tomorrow by looking at the pattern of jobs on the board. If they really can, that\u2019ll be a big help too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darla smiled and raised her coffee cup in a salute. \u201cExcellent. A toast to the success of visual boards, then! Now\u2026\u201d She leaned forward. \u201cWould you mind going into detail about how you implemented them? Because if they worked for you, they might work for me, and it\u2019d be nice to have a bit less chaos to deal with in my content team\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darla had just arrived at her favourite caf\u00e9 when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Turning around, she saw a face that she hadn\u2019t seen since university. \u201cPaul! This is a surprise! It\u2019s been\u2026 wow, it\u2019s been nearly 10 years since I saw you last! How have you been?\u201d Darla had been in many of …<\/p>\n

Visual Boards Application<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-705","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2524,"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}