RunsheetOperations

Visual Management

ComplexityLow

TimeOngoing

Participants1-20

FormatWorkshop + async

MaturityEstablished

Prerequisite

What needs to be finished first

Complete firstProcess Mapping

The process or workflow to control is at least roughly mapped so it is clear which states and handoffs must be visualized.

Without: Without process understanding, decorative boards emerge that nobody uses for decisions.

Preparation

What needs to be ready before start

Materials

Board surface (physical whiteboard, magnetic board, or digital board); colored cards, magnets, or stickers; clear visibility from workplace; rule sheet for columns and signals; pen with labeling standard.

People / roles

Board owner (team lead or operator); two to three users who update the board daily; optional coach maintaining rules; sponsor using the board in daily meetings.

Pre-read

Purpose of board in one sentence; list of signals to visualize (status, bottleneck, deviation from standard); current data sources; location and visibility; update cadence per signal.

Time needed

2-3 h setup, then 5-10 min/day maintenance

Setup

Place board at the work location, not in a meeting room. Structure columns and signals with tape. Labeling standard and update rule on a sign at the board. Pilot for 1 week before official use.

Core question

The one question this method answers

Which operational signals must be visible at all times without opening a tool so deviations from standard become immediately actionable?

Flow

Marker: Phase

Step	Duration	Action	Hint
1Phase 1: Select signals	45 min	Define at most seven signals that should trigger daily decisions. Note source, thresholds, and desired reaction per signal. What triggers no reaction does not belong on the board.	Boards with 20+ signals are not read. If a signal triggers no reaction, it is decoration. Test: what happens when it turns red?
2Phase 2: Design layout	30 min	Allocate board areas to signals: left status, center deviations, right actions. Fix zoning with tape. Define labeling standard.	Make layout readable from 3 m distance. If letters are too small, the board will be ignored. Less content, more visibility.
3Phase 3: Pilot operation	1 week	Run daily update with the team. Check update time, ownership, and rule clarity. Question or remove what is not updated.	A board showing gaps after 3 days has wrong signals or wrong owner. Better adjust in pilot than quietly decay after 4 weeks.
4Phase 4: Daily stand at board	10 min/day	Daily meeting at the board instead of table. Sequence: status, deviations, actions. Every deviation gets owner and target date. No discussions, only decisions.	If daily takes longer than 15 min, it is a status round, not a standup. Move detail discussions to the end.
5Phase 5: Monthly board review	30 min/month	Which signals triggered actions, which did not. Remove dead signals, add missing ones. Sharpen labeling and update rules.	Boards decay without maintenance. Anyone setting up a board without reviewing it has a dead display in 3 months.

Artifact

What comes out at the end

Form

Physical or digital board at the work location with defined zones for status, deviations, and actions, labeling and update standards, plus documented rule sheet explaining board logic.

Versioning / ownership

Rule sheet with version number and date at the board. Photograph layout changes and store in wiki. Monthly board review creates changelog entry with what, why, when.

Tool alternatives

Magnetic whiteboard with tape zones
Plotter-printed board with writable foil
Digital dashboard on wall monitor (Grafana, Power BI)
Hybrid with physical board and QR code to data source

visual-management-working-template.md

Compact working template for Visual Management with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.

Visual Management Canvas

Context

What is this method used for?

Core question

Which question should be answered at the end?

Input

Which data, observations, or materials are available?

Working area

Area 1:
Area 2:
Area 3:
Relationships / patterns:

Output artifacts

Visual Board:
Status Indicators:
Exception Cues:

Open questions

Next step

Owner, date, success signal.

Example output

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

visual-management-beispiel.md

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

Visual Management Board - Line 3 (v1.2, 2026-05-18)

Location: wall next to station 4, visible from 4 m.

Zones:

Status (left): current shift output (target 240, actual 218), takt time 38 s.
Deviations (center): scrap today 4.1% (threshold 2.5% red), top defect screw connection.
Actions (right): A3 torque calibration (Owner: @markus, due 2026-05-19), holder layout station 4 (Owner: @stefan, due 2026-05-26).

Red cards stay red, nobody acts, credibility drops.

What to do

Define escalation rule: red >24 h triggers escalation to sponsor.

Stop criteria

Done signals checkable in under a minute

No owner named for daily update, board is abandoned after setup.

Location is outside users' field of view, cards do not reach addressees.

Data sources missing for more than half of signals, values are guessed.

Sponsor does not use board in daily, team sees no point in maintenance.

Area has no recurring decisions, visualization is not decision-relevant.

Compliance forbids visible metrics at location, different solution required.

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