A weekly newsletter about letting the workplace speak
Issue 21/Volume 2                www.VisualWorkplace.com                 May 27, 2015
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Visual Thinking Inc.

Upcoming Events
Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking Seminar
Tobyhanna Army Depot
Tobyhanna, PA
Tuesday, June 2
SOLD OUT
Friday, June 12
12:00 - 1:30pm Pacific
Visual Leadership:
Principles/Tools 
with Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth

$75 per person or group

Visual Workplace Assessment
Alcon
Irvine, California
June 12-13
Visual Workplace Presentation
Beijing, China
June 30-July 8
Visual Workplace Trainings
Ilfov, Romania
October 2015
On Sale in May
W ork that Makes Sense
Suite 1: Basics   
Three dynamic learning modules from our
WTMS eLearning Training and Implementation System

Learn how to get started with Visuality in YOUR WORKPLACE:

Module 1:
Basics of Visuality
Module 2:
Visual Building Blocks
Module 3:
Implementation Tool Box

Modules priced separately are $500 each.

Through May 31, you can buy Suite 1
(regular price $1400)
for only  $1,100 USD

 
From the Editor: 
A Good Virus
According to Wikipedia, "A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms".

A
computer virus is "a malware program that replicates by inserting copies of itself (possibly modified) into other computer programs...or the boot sector of the hard drive." 
 

CAN WE BUILD A 
GOOD VIRUS?
  
What if your plant is the living organism or the computer hard drive?

And what if visual devices are a GOOD type of virus? We know they are infectious, they replicate, they modify, and they spread.

What is the most resilient virus? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities, rewrite all the rules, and transform the world.

How does your thinking about visual devices change if you think about spreading it like a virus? Can you infect someone's imagination today with a visual device idea that kicks off the replication/ modification process?  
  

 

Let's each start a visual device idea virus today! 


Cindy Lyndin

Editor-in-Chief
Visual Radio:  
At-A-Distance Coaching: The Five Keys

Listen to Gwendolyn this 
Thursday at 10am (Pacific) on
 
This Week's Episode
At-A-Distance Coaching: The Five Keys
   

What's the best way to get a solid return on your investment in outside training resources? How can external trainers ensure that what they teach turns into improvement results? In the view of Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host at Visual Workplace Radio and visual expert, the best insurance is a series of at-a-distance coaching sessions with the core implementation team. After decades of working hands-on to make on-site conversions succeed, Dr. Galsworth decided to shift her follow-up practice from one tethered to her, to company self-sufficiency. In the process, she developed a robust model for coaching at a distance. Tune in this week and hear how she does it. Listen as she presents the five keys to effective long-distance coaching-what is required, what to coach for, and what the warning signs are of an implementation gone awry. If you are a CI specialist or coach, you won't want to miss this insightful primer on making and spreading success-after you fly away. Tune in/learn more.

Feature Article
Lean Alone is  Not Enough:
You Need Visuality 
by Gwendolyn Galsworth   

Many companies attempt to convert from traditional to the new manufacturing by relying exclusively on lean tools. In keeping with core lean principles, they focus on reducing the time component of a process-attacking time as a cost factor in order to increase profit margin. That means reducing cycle time as well.

Make no bones about it: Time-based improvement is a critical step in transforming your enterprise and increasing your profit margins. The lean strategy and its complement of lean tools-cellular design, takt time, standard work, pull systems, line leveling, load balancing-is crucial to both these outcomes. Cellular design, for example, creates discrete fields of production that are defined by the value that gets added there. Material, people, and information follow a path through the physical environment that, improvement cycle after improvement cycle, begins to describe the least-cost flow. I call this flow line: the product's critical path.   
Thought for the Week

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."  -Oliver Wendell Holmes   

Did You Know...
Myth: If I don't wear glasses, I don't need to have my eyes tested.

Fact: Everybody's eyesight changes over time and it's important to check for conditions such as glaucoma which can be treated easily but can be devastating if undetected. An eye test can also reveal other things about your health, including high blood pressure and diabetes. For all these reasons, it is recommended for everyone to have an eye test every two years, or more often for young children and people who have sight problems in the family.

And the Visual Fail Prize Goes To...
Have you seen a Visual Fail that made you laugh?  Send the image to cindy@visualworkplace.com,
and we'll put it here and credit you with the funny find!
Visual Poem/Puzzle
Visual Tricks and Treats
Great signs, clever visual devices, artistic or humorous graffiti. If you find one to share, send the image to cindy@visualworkplace.com