Visual management – A common language for improvement

In these times of reduced production, many of our site colleagues have devoted time to maintenance tasks. Launched in 2008 and available in ten languages (all translated internally), ‘The Visual Management Handbook’ provides them with guidelines on how to do this efficiently.

Robert Dapère, GM Operational Excellence, explains the motivation behind the manual. “During the 2007 Maintenance KMP, we discovered that Visual Management practices were not very widespread in ArcelorMittal plants, and in some cases, they were even misunderstood. This is the reason why we decided to work on common illustrated guidelines.”

Just ask Mary Jo Csonka, Division Manager, Manufacturing Technology, how it is put into action at ArcelorMittal Cleveland, US. “We have used the Visual Management Handbook to eliminate safety issues by improving our machine guarding of equipment,” she says. “Marking areas in the plant to warn of elevated surfaces, highly travelled areas and pinch points. We have also used the book as a reference guide for equipment gauging for mistake-proofing.”

ArcelorMittal people can check out the Group’s intranet to discover more about how this useful (and cost-efficient) initiative is being deployed in our sites. All versions are downloadable from the Technology teamsite in the Collaboration Portal, in PDF format.