Visual Management

Overview - Visual Management

There are a number of tools within the Lean toolkit that can be used to eliminate waste. This module looks at one such tool – Visual Management, which uses visual aids to streamline processes.

Visual management focuses on teaching learners about the importance of workplace/workstation organisation and how visual aids and signals can help streamline any process and communications.

Visual management simplifies understanding of the workplace and provides a more accurate perception of reality, enabling learners to make informed decisions quickly.

Visual Management also helps to address the issues of having individual, isolated pools of knowledge, and also overcomes the issues of having centralised knowledge, by converting it into a "knowledge field" in which everything is appropriately public and can be easily interpreted. Visual communications is all about replacing text with easy to understand images. However, it goes beyond just communicating information: it can be used to control processes too.

This course draws upon "Lean" principles: Lean is often described as an approach for providing products or services that a customer requires on-time, of the right quality, at the right price, in the right amount, whilst meeting budgetary constraints and continually reducing costs. Visual Management is a technique which runs through all Lean principles. This course includes a "notes" feature which encourages learners to focus their thinking around real life situations from their work place. At points throughout the course learners will be asked to stop and think about their own work situation and, using the "notes" feature, document how this could apply in their own work environment. The aim of the module is to provide learners with a good understanding of practical visual tools that can be used to help support the elimination of "waste" and improve communication within their organisations.

Having completed this module, the learner will:

• Understand what visual management is and how it is useful in a healthcare setting
• Be able to list examples of visual communication and how they can aid understanding
• Appreciate the benefits of Key Performance Indicators and dashboards, and distinguish how they should be displayed
• Understand what visual controls are, why they are necessary and how they can be implemented

Lesson Plan

• Welcome and Learning Objectives
• Lean Principles
• Introduction to Visual Management
• Visual Communications
• Visual Controls
• Visual Management and Summary

Accreditation

The content of this course has been independently certified as conforming to universally accepted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) guidelines

Certification

On completion of this course you will be able to download a Virtual College certificate.

Duration

Approximately 3 - 4 hours. The length of time taken depends entirely on how quickly you can study and absorb the material. You can proceed as quickly or slowly as you like, and there is no limit on how long you can take to do the course.

Target Audience

This e-learning module is aimed at helping individuals and teams to gain a broad knowledge of visual management techniques. Although this module uses examples and scenarios from a Health and Social Care setting, it is equally useful to anyone outside of this sector wishing to have a better understanding of the value of Visual Management.

Entry Requirements

There are no specific entry requirements for this course.