Every (manufacturing) company wants to visualize its operational information as simply and clearly as possible. Daily Performance Management (DPM) is a visual method to measure the performance of a team and enables teams to make improvements themselves. By using a digital platform, everyone in the team, regardless of location, can see how the team is doing and where improvements are needed.

Many companies have a planning board on the wall or use a digital solution to keep track of the situation. A well-known pitfall here is to only use these signs because the management asks for it, make sure that all check marks are green. This should not be the objective of the working method. It's about knowing exactly what's going on in your company or department and taking concrete actions.

Lean methods

Transparency, knowing what exactly is happening, is essential in DPM. When applied properly, it creates responsibility and ownership. With high performance teams continuous improvement can be achieved.

Various Lean methods are used, such as Hoshin Kanri, translating company goals into objectives for the departments they have influence on themselves. This helps employees to focus on achieving objectives. In addition, communication and participation in setting the goals are promoted and the employees themselves are responsible for achieving their goals.

Benefits of Visual management

In particular, visual management is important. Good visual cues are easy to understand for everyone, regardless of education level, language, and culture. Thanks to visual information, problems can be recognized immediately, and everyone knows what needs to be done to solve the problem with every specific action. Visual information promotes working in teams because everyone sees the same information and is collectively responsible for the results.

The component 'daily' should not be taken too literally. Some teams evaluate daily, but other teams will do this once a week or once every two weeks. Other departments must check performance more often than daily, for example every hour. Think of a customer service department or production department.

Regular performance evaluation is important. Suppose you decide to achieve a certain goal by the end of 2021, for example reducing the lead time by two days. If you only check how things are going in December, there is a chance that you will not see any progress. Regularly checking the results ensures that you can continue to make adjustments.

From management to workspace

Within the organization, it is important to regularly evaluate performance to be streamlined and to have the DPM take place as close as possible to the place where the real work is done. The information comes together in every layer in the organization, where, for example, operators have a meeting with team leaders, team leaders with group leaders, and so on. In this way, the information spreads from the first to the last layer and escalation upwards can take place if necessary. In this example, if the team leader cannot resolve it, they can escalate it to the group leader.

What information is on the board?

Thanks to the visual display, several things must be immediately clear on every board.

• Are we winning or losing? That should be visible in three (or five or ten) seconds. If there are too many Performance Indicators, there is too much information to be able to see it at a glance. As mentioned earlier, tools for visual management are useful, because everyone immediately sees what is green and what is red.
• Is there a trend? What will happen in the long run?
• What are the actions needed to improve the results?

There are no ready-made guidelines for the structure of a DPM board. The type of organization and the type of department are decisive.

Basic parts that you often see on boards are:

• People. People are the most important factor. Make sure that you always optimally involve everyone in the DPM process. Think of their physical and mental health and their safety.
• Performance. A frequently used method to measure performance is QDIP: Quality, Delivery, Inventory, Productivity.
• Continuous improvement. Improvements are always possible. How can we solve problems structurally?

Digital solution

There is an increasing need for a digital solution for DPM and other Lean methodologies. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, meetings are increasingly taking place remotely. MEVISIO from Sweden is a platform that combines the benefits of the traditional way of working with the benefits of digital working. For ease of use and functionality, TMC has partnered with MEVISIO. This cloud solution makes it very easy to set up interactive boards that are very intuitive to operate and adjust. In addition, the solution integrates well with other solutions, for example business systems that are already in use.