- Visual Management uses visual mechanisms to communicate information. - Daily Management is team-based, visual, and has a regular cadence. - Successful Daily Management execution involves evaluating current performance and continuous adjustment and improvement by the entire team.
What is Visual Management
Visual Management uses visual mechanisms to communicate information.
Type | Purpose |
Visual Boards | Create Transparency, understanding, define countermeasures, promote learning |
Visual Controls | Guide Action of Staff members and Leadership |
Daily Management (DM)
Daily Management Is | Daily Management Is Not |
Team-based | A place to drive long term initiatives or improvements |
Visual | Reading the News |
Regular cadence | Coaching Session |
Most critical & actionable metrics to drive improvements | Long discussions forum |
Place to initiate problem solving and actions with urgency | Root cause analysis |
What determines Successful Daily Mgmt. (DM) execution?
- Evaluate current Performance
- What is the problem?
- What is the reason?
- Which actions need to be taken?
- Who must act?
- The entire team needs to adjust and improve continuously
Why is DM critical?
- Improves process quality.
- Targets the entire team.
- Allows to quickly spot the problems.
- Helps to meet customer demands.
- Ensures focus and alignment.
- Safeguards transparency of decision-making process.
- Ensures that our foundation stays strong.
DM is integrated throughout all Levels of the organisation
- DM is an essential part of a management system at every Level.
- Daily Management with the right KPI’s “Keeps the train running”, whilst the Breakthrough initiatives coming from the Strategy deployment process (SDP) help “ invent new modes of transport”
- DM involves the Front-Line associates all the way to Top Management, through its tiered structure.
- Kaizen Events link both the SDP initiatives and countermeasures for issues arising from the daily management system. The initiation of a Kaizen event can come from either element.
3 Key elements of Daily Managment
- Understand in 3 Seconds: Are we winning or Losing?
- What is the Trend?
- Do we have Countermeasures?
Implementing a DM System requires coordinated Action at all levels
Plan Steps
Prepare:
Perform:
Get Leadership on Board
Decide on critical metrics
Define a regular cadence
Identify desired behaviors to drive
Setup your visual management strategy
Establish problem-solving process
Figure out customer need
Install a process at point of impact
Create current state process
Install Tier Layers
Plan Phase:
GET MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
- Make sure that you stay in line with management objectives.
- Gather support in terms of resources and time.
- Always try to reach at least one level up.
DETERMINE DESIRED BEHAVIORS
- Red is Good!
- Don’t shoot the messenger! Try storming!!
- Don’t let perfect get in the way of better!
UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER NEEDS
- Is my customer internal or external?
- What is important to my customer?
- Does my customer have any pain points?
- How can I eliminate pain and drive customer satisfaction?
IDENTIFY THE CURRENT STATE PROCESS
- How is your department currently functioning?
- What does your value stream or process flow map look like?
- What are the key process steps?
- What are your responsibilities?
- What are your main goals?
AVOIDING PLANING PITFALLS
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:
# | Main Risk Points | Countermeasures | Do’s |
1 | Management is not involved | Use different communication channels and try to build consensus | Determine peer groups in other functions or departments |
2 | Change is only at management, but not at associate level | Involve right people when designing the process | Review targets documentation |
3 | Improvement of metrics does not affect customer and its satisfaction | Always review your actions and performance from customer’s viewpoint | Go to Gemba and study the process again by observing. Re-visit the KPI’s every 6 month or so. |
4 | Loss of focus due to overuse of different metrics and KPIs | Concentrate on tracking leading performance indicators which point to continuous improvement | Link to ensure activity of Problem-Solving Process |
5 | lack of ownership of meeting/board | Always ensure the Owner of the Board / meeting is clearly defined. | pick small manageable sized areas (bite sized) |
PLAN - Key Take aways:
- Get management on board.
- Determine which behaviors you want to drive.
- Have very good understanding of customer needs.
- Determine and map current state of the process.
- Ensure that your scope is rational and customer-oriented.
Prepare Phase
Choosing your Metrics:
- What is the nature of your current KPIs?
- Leading
- Lagging
- Which metrics have the main impact on your customers?
- What are your supervisor’s expectations for measuring and reporting?
Good KPI’s are
- Are customer-focused.
- Reflect the main goals and scope of the process.
- Are simple and repeatable.
- Show progress towards goals.
- Call for action → Problem Solving.
LEADING VS. LAGGING Targerts-to-Imptove (TTI’s)
Leading | Lagging |
Predictive activities that lead to your lagging TTI | Something has happened that can't be undone - The result (lagging) |
What is on the DM Boards
- What happened yesterday?
- Can learn from it but not change.
- Do I have any alerts (Safety, Quality issues)?
- Will I reach my target on time (Delivery)?
- Do I have enough fuel (Material) to reach my target?
- How much fuel in average am I consuming (cost)?
Where should we measure?
Seek out decision points/steps as potential leading indicators /KPI’s, as opposed to only measuring at the end.
Daily manamagement Formats:
- Project Tollgates / Milesontes
- Processes
- Project Funnels
- Dashboards (i.e. sales)
+QDIP Format
“Performance Overview in 3 Seconds”
Problem solving:
- Problem Statement
- Root Cause
- Countermeasures
- Sustainment
Drive urgency and accountability on daily issues
Drive ownership to the point of impact.
Are we winning or losing?
Standards
- Red: Missed goal
- Green: Met goal
- Every metric has an Owner
Define the problem
Best Practices:
- Goal line is dashed blue line
- Red or green daily
- Post current score with high visibility
Investigate and drive root cause
Assign reason codes that lead to meaningful Pareto's
Identify the codes that create the most problems and thus have the greatest impact when solved.

Consider the different levels of problems.
Level of Problem | Indicators | Tools | Structure of the Problem | Level in Organization |
😱 Complex | •How many ways can a problem be addressed?
•What kind of thinking, action or knowledge must be demonstrated? | •Problem Solving
•Problem Solving Sheet | Ill Structured | Top mgmt |
😥 Difficult | •How many people can address a problem?
•How much effort is needed? | •A3
•Ishikawa | middle | middle |
😏 Simple | •Obvious root cause visible
•Quick fix | •Brainstorming | well-structured | Front line |
Drive urgency with action plan
In urgent cases you should react ASAP!
Use this form to:
- Create sense of urgency
- Drive accountability
- Track progress
New actions can only be assigned to people who are present at meetings.
Owner of the action should always be a single person – Not titles or departments.
Every action has a due date.

PROCESS AT GEMBA
- Choose location
- For Daily Management gemba is the best
- Choose timing
- Daily Managements means (mostly) Daily Basis
- The timing should allow to take immediate actions when needed
- Set up Daily Management Board(s)
- Explain the participants goals and expectations
INSTALL TIER LEVELS
Both Stage and Business improvments should be considered when setting up the tiers.
Participants must be selected wisely based on the local setup.
Align Metrics between Tiers
Prepare Pitfalls to Avoid
# | Main Risk Points | Countermeasures | Do’s |
1 | Having too many KPIs | Use only critical ones
| Analyze other Daily Management boards
|
2 | The Daily Management Board is too complicated and overloaded
| Peer leaders can help to review board for clarity and ease of use
| Keep the Daily Management board as close to Gemba, as possible
|
3 | Adjusting or replacing standard process without bringing value added
| Every team member should be able to explain the board at any time
| Do not expect everyone to be there every time
|
4 | Cancelling meetings
| Meeting should always take place
| Be able to answer the question Will we win today?
|
5 | Reading the News
| Make sure targets are leading
|
Exercise 2 Prepare JIT Bakery
PREPARE - Key Take aways:
- Focus on the most important KPIs.
- Choose right Visual Management tools.
- Place DM Board at or near the Gemba.
Performance
Daily Management horizon
- Week / Month
- Day / Day +1 / Week
- Hour by Hour/ Day / Day +1
- Hour by Hour / Day
DM meetings: Regular vs problem solving
- No Problem Solving Sessions in DM Meeting
Regular cadence (daily or weekly) | Problem solving meetings | |
Time | Standard time | Standard time |
Agenda | Tight: 10 to 15 min. | In-depth |
Attendees | Managers and Associates
Back-ups in place to take over ownership | Depending on the objective |
Emphasis | Misses and the reasons
Temporary urgent actions that need to be taken
Escalation of issues, if needed | Systemic problems
Pareto the reasons
Deep dive team analysis of the most critical ones
Development of sustainable countermeasures
Posting problem solving documentation at the board |
DAILY MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST
- Win/Loss – Immediately visible
- Goal, current state, gap, trend
- Countermeasures (continuous improvement)
- No finger pointing
- Entire team involvement
- Focus on critical KPIs
- Regular cadence
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT WITH DAILY MANAGEMENT
DM implementation follows continuous improvement on the PDCA wheel.
You must schedule time to understand the impact of Daily Management on your team performance:
- Are you on track?
- Are behaviours changing as planned?
- Does your customer feel any improvement?
DM LEADERSHIP CHECKLIST
- Bring in the “winning team” spirit.
- Everyone should feel safe to reveal problems and involve associates when needed.
- Leaders should be present and constantly involved.
- Create and maintain a sense of urgency.
- Create a continuously developing environment where team members are willing to learn and receive feedback.
- Drive accountability.
- Make sure the team understands everything by asking questions.
- Personal meetings are important.
- Delegate ownership wisely.
- Team should document all the follow-up actions.
Change Management is critical to Daily Management implementation
Perform Pitfalls to Avoid
# | Main Risk Points | Countermeasures | Do’s |
1 | Having meetings once a week is not enough
| Post meeting cadence and action owners on the board
| Attend other Daily Management meetings
|
2 | Data is being updated during the meeting
| Post Problem Solving results, extensive discussions can take place after the meeting
| Use Problem Solving language
|
3 | Meetings take longer than 15 minutes | Keep it short, simple and always focused
| Separate between problem solving and daily meeting
|
4 | Meetings take place only if supervisor is there | Delegate responsibility sustain associate engagement
| Set new targets and priority areas to move forward
|
5 | Too many meetings
| Target with Tiered accountability is to decentralize and take decisions fast
| Remove duplications
|
Exercise 3 Apply Perform to JIT Bakery
Perform Key Takeaways
- Make sure the cadence is appropriate and consistent.
- Problem Solving should be supported by DM.
- Use DM checklist.
- Make sure that you address DM challenges.
Potential AI Article from content
Subscribe to my Newsletter
Table of contents
- What is Visual Management
- Daily Management (DM)
- 3 Key elements of Daily Managment
- Implementing a DM System requires coordinated Action at all levels
- Plan Phase:
- AVOIDING PLANING PITFALLS
- PLAN - Key Take aways:
- Prepare Phase
- +QDIP Format
- Prepare Pitfalls to Avoid
- Exercise 2 Prepare JIT Bakery
- PREPARE - Key Take aways:
- Performance
- Daily Management horizon
- DM meetings: Regular vs problem solving
- DAILY MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST
- CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT WITH DAILY MANAGEMENT
- DM LEADERSHIP CHECKLIST
- Change Management is critical to Daily Management implementation
- Exercise 3 Apply Perform to JIT Bakery
- Perform Key Takeaways
- Potential AI Article from content
- Table of contents
- See Also
See Also
Get in Touch!
Contribute