Now that you have completed the design, it's time to design the visual management items for the kanban. The visual management plan will explain the kanban to everyone and visually instruct/remind everyone how the kanban operates. The basic goal of your visual aids should be to answer the questions that pop up on a daily basis: Where do I get this from, where do I move that, which color buggy contains which part, is there a color scheme, do we have any-more of this part?

From experience, we know that you cannot overcommunicate with signs, colors, arrows, lines, etc. Essentially, think about the questions someone could have about the kanban, then develop visual answers to these questions. Also, consider when and where people will be when they have these questions, then place the answers in those locations.

Make your visual aids colorful and easy to read. Use these tips when developing visual aids:

• Keep the colors consistent with existing color schemes

• Avoid red typically associated with safety or quality

• Avoid yellow typically associated with safety

• Use large print for hanging signs and wall signs

• Avoid excessive words on your signs people don't read signs, they glance at them

Make forms and signs easy to update. To give homemade signs a professional look, use a word processing program to create the signs and hang them in Plexiglass holders, such as the one shown in Figure 5-20. Whenever you create signs or forms, don't forget to determine who will update...