Q 389. What is Kamishibai Board in Lean Manufacturing? Provide examples how this can be used effectively in Service Industry.

 

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Kamishibai Board is a tool for visualization of management system and standards. It was originated in 12th century in japan where people will show story telling of Buddhist moral through paper theater for people to self audit themselves so that they can check & compare if they are living the right way or not. 

Generally audits or checks are done on daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. So Kamishibai board visualizes the steps that need to be taken for the audit and NCRs that are pending. That is how it standardizes the audit process and eliminates the need of specialized expertise. 

It contains 5W1H information (Who, What, When, Where, Why & How information) on the board. This information is written on the card which are placed on the board. It is useful for Gemba visits. Anyone can come, pick the card and check the system. 

The NCRs are issued and countermeasures are also mentioned.

 

This board is located where it is visible to process owner and can be easily accessed. 

 

As is the case with most manufacturing originated tools this can be used in service industry as well and vice versa. 

A good example would be Car service centers where you can generally see Kamishibai Boards. It is used for auditing the basic checks on daily basis and even used for higher up audits. 

 

Another example would be Call centers where it can used to check the canteen facility. the quality of hygiene. Same can be displayed near work station. 

 

I am attaching a basic example of Kamishibai Board.  

Kamishibai board is a visual control center in the workplace which is used for performing audits especially in a manufacturing process. A number of cards are placed on a board and ensures that the safety and cleanliness of workplace is maintained and that quality checks are being performed to ensure adherence to laid down processes.  The Name Kamishbai has its origin to Japaneese traditional storyetelling practice where Children are taught to build up a mini-theatre and show the pictures as they tell the story as we see the storytelling supported by a storyboard in cards in Kamishibai concept / board.

 

Kamishibai Cards look like the Kanban board in the manufacturing processes and Toyota is widely using this concept to do their daily / weekly / monthly audits of the processes. Toyota used this term 1^st un 2006 at a seminar where emphasis was to how better track the day to day activities and guide people if something deviates from the planned output. Usage of Kamishibai boards found in tacking many processes / activities in manufacturing plant like production, maintenance, sourcing and procurement etc.

 

Why Kamishibai is used ?

Objective of using Kamishibai is not a fault finding process. The proper use of a Kamishibai is to train the mind and eyes of the involved person’s to see problems (deviations from the standard output), identify improvements even though these are small, and teach others also to see and solve these kind of problems.

 

 

In Kamishibai framework, diligently completing the audits is also as critical to success of it as the result of the audit itself. The purpose is not to find the mistakes, however the problems should certainly be made visible. The purpose is to get into the habit of checking the important activities each day.

The Kamishibai card is printed on both sides where one side is green and other side is red. To help the people who may be color blind, a symbol should be added to identify go (O) and no-go (X) conditions.

How Kamishibai helps the Manufacturing ?

Using the Kamishibai board, one can easily track and improve the daily / weekly / monthly conformance to the laid down standards. Like a supervisor for maintenance can use this method to track the critical maintenance activities checkpoints in daily / weekly / monthly basis and bring the problems to surface using this method.  These boards are located very near to actual workplace. Kamishibai board is used during the Gemba walk by the leaders and this add more effectiveness and structure to the Gemba walks which may be aimless otherwise. Kamishibai systems specify the 5W1H (who, what, where, when, why and how) for confirming process standards.

How Kamishibai can be helpful in Service Sector ?

I can think of various standard processes which can be tracked, visualized and improved using the Kamishibai board :

1.       Audits Planning and Tracking Process – Daily / Weekly / Monthly tracking of critical deliverables.

2.       Administration - Daily / Weekly / Monthly tracking of transport, maintenance etc. E.g. Transport team may use it to day to day critical activities as below :

 

 

 

1.       HR team may use Kamishibai dashboard in Recruitment function to track the candidate fitment for required profile.

2.       SCM / Procurement team may use it for tracking the materials receipt / responsibility and their conformance to standards.

3.       Internal IT teams may use this method to track incoming / outgoing / WIP faulty systems on day to day or shift to shift basis.

4.       Software development may use the same to track day to day activities related to daily submissions to client / increment / work quantum they have to complete and same way critical deliverables for the month / week / quarter.

 

Some of Famous Companies using Kamishibai :

 

So if we see since Kamishibai is an effective tracking and improving tool, it can be used across sectors / industries for tracking day to day activities and to surface out the problems and improve the same by taking the counter actions on the same. The usage of this tool is independent of nature of sector (Manufacturing / Sector) as we saw.

Dear All,

 

It was used in  Japan for story telling, The same was adopted in Toyota production system (TPS) in the latter stage. It is a strong self audit mechanism of our own system by different trained internal stockholders / auditors. The beauty of this system is its following: P-D-C-A, Poka-yoke, Visual factory, employee engagement culture, Kaizen and CI. 

This board will have a predefined audit plan, checklist (cards), colored dots to indicate the status, The audit shall be done by various stakeholders including GM and reported on daily / weekly basis. By seeing the board we can say the story of the plant. This system is very well used in preventive or autonomous maintenance and production lines or any service industries. This shall provide a complete structure to Gemba walk.

 

The information on cards shall be - 5 W 1 H- who, what,, where, when, why and how to adopt as per process flow. This system is the way to standardize, be more visible and to be quick on Gemba walk.

 

PDCA - The process is fully following  the PDCA approach

Poka-Yoke - It's a mistake proofing system  as the complete cycle is visible and the flow of cards is monitored by every stakeholder and the system is robust.

Visual factory - It will give you the snapshot of the process / service line by seeing the board

EE Culture - It shall promote / motivate people to engineer by themselves to see the everyday progress and achievement.

Kaizen - We can celebrate everyday by seeing any one of the dept. (HSE, Q, Productivity, 5S etc)

Continuous improvement:  At last it's a continuous improvement process as a whole. 

How it can be used in Service industries: Their daily and week KPI status / 5 S and / HSE / Quality shall be monitored through this card.

 

 

 

Kamishibai is a Japanese word translated in English as ‘paper drama’.

The concept originated in the eighth century in Japan when Buddhist monks used ‘picture scrolls’ for describing the history of earlier monasteries. This popularised in 1930’s post-war as a form of storytelling using picture scrolls to convey stories with moral lessons to the audience where most of them were illiterates.

 

Kamishibai Board in Lean Manufacturing:

Toyota capitalised on the concept of “Kamishibai”, customised it to put to use as a visual control board detailing process audit schedule and parameters to perform periodical audits within their manufacturing process primarily to ensure safety, cleanliness of workplace (5S) and quality checks compliance. The concept was integrated to the Toyota Production system. This visual control method helped to ensure that audits are performed consistently.

 

Generally, the kamishibai boards are placed close to the workplace in the vicinity of the process under the scope of audit. Visual indicators (Red / Green colours) provide the status of the audit, whether they are complete / incomplete and also if there are any violations to the standard work. Kamishibai board collaborates well with the “genchi gembutsu” principle to make the gemba walks structured and effective defining strong visual controls and clear standards. Kamishibai standardises the process of audit itself to reduce variability in the outcomes of the audits done by different people. The audit cards specify details of 5W+1H (who, what, where, when, why & how) to reduce variability in the audit process.

 

Key Objectives:

Here are few key objectives the Kamashibai board concept aims for.

·         Establish standard audit method to detect variations against a known standard

·         Shared responsibility and commitment

·         Expose abnormalities / variations against the set standards

·         Prompt timely correction of root cause(s) of the abnormality

·         Create a healthy environment to challenge the current conditions

·         Create an environment of continuous improvement

 

Components of the Kamahibai board:

1.       Flip over cards – one side red and other side green colour with same instructions

2.       Standard work instructions – Instructions to perform the audit at the prescribed location (5W+1H) including criteria developed from known standard conditions

3.       Standard schedule – a schedule containing a balanced (WHO conducts audit, WHEN is the audit done and WHERE should be the audit done) shared responsibility and commitment.

4.       Output of audit – visual record of findings, root cause and counter measures.

5.       Incoming completed – a box to collect all completed incoming audit cards.

Steps followed:

Kamishibai boards in service industry:

Audit requirements prevail commonly even in service industries and hence the kamishibai board / method can be applied effectively. An interesting example of using the kamishibai cards in services was found at MU Health Care, USA. One of the units at MU health care, uses this concept to do a safety audit on one high risk patient every shift. Learning about this initiative, the oncology department uses this concept to identify and remove obstacles causing patients to fall. The team came up with an acronym TUMBLES which stands for Toilet, Urine, Medication, Beds, Linens, Exercise Equipment and Shoes to describe the risk factors and created audit checklists focussing on them. The audit was carried out following the steps which eventually led to a 50% reduction in the fall rate. This program was so successful that other units started adopting the concept to put them to use focussing on specific goals.

 

Kamishibai board  is a visual management tool. It is a process confirmation method that plays an important part in a daily management system. It is a system of autonomous maintenance vide daily, weekly, monthly audits which are performed by the different levels management. Kamishibai audits management systems and standards. These audits detect slipping standards and prevent breakdowns of the Lean management system.

 

Kamishibai board offers strong visual controls and clear standards during Gemba walk and structure every part of the walk. This ensures that leaders perform process confirmation of key standards every day.

 

Origin
The kamishibai is a paper theater storytelling system common in Japan. This paper theater originated in the 12th century as Buddhist moral dramas for the illiterate. The audience of the kamishibai saw and heard what happened to characters in the story. They could compare their lives to the “standard” in the kamishibai story to check if they were living their life in a moral way. It was a self audit system.
 

How to use
1.    Cards, mentioning the task to be performed, are put up on the Kamishibai board.
2.    One side of the card is Green colored which indicates that the task is complete and the other side is Red colored indicating that the task is incomplete.
3.    Daily, Weekly and Monthly tasks , to be performed, are initially put up as red cards on the board. Red cards indicate that the task is incomplete.

 

4.     The leader / manager, picks up the Red colored cards and perform the tasks.

5.     After the task is completed, the card is turned to Green side and put up on the board.

6.     During the performance of the task, if abnormalities or deviations are observed, then the task is listed as incomplete and card for that task is kept as Red.

7.     For tasks which are incomplete due to observed abnormalities and deviations Problem statement, Root cause, Counter Measure, Responsibility and Target Date to Implement are recorded in the audit sheet.

8.     At day end, week end or month end, the Green cards are again turned to Red. This opens the tasks to be performed again on the next day, next week or next month.  

Kamishibai boards are popularly known as controls (visual) to conduct Audits for manufacturing processes. This method has been widely used in Toyota. There is a board and we need to place cards, which are selected at random, or may be basis a schedule designed by managers. The system makes sure that Audits are conducted with consistency, as well as ensuring cleanliness and safety of the workplace (in line with 5S method).

Benefits: 

Communication - Managers can take a quick tour of the production floor and interact with their employees asking them simple questions and allow them to talk about what needs to be done in each part.

Facilitates auditing - Audit process is simplified and improved - helping production.

Inculcates values in employees - The intent is not blame anyone for making mistakes, rather help them to visualize the problem and get trained on how to solve them. It's a systematic identification process along with looking for opportunities to gain.

 

Example from Service Industry: Kamishibai Card Rounding to prevent Hospital Acquired Infections.

 

K-Cards is used (as a tool) in daily rounding to provide data (real time), helps improving rounding with a purpose and bundle compliance. It helps to prevent patient from the harm of hospital acquired infections.

 

GOAL - To resolve issues related to hospital acquired conditions, help grow reliability with the elements of patient bedside care that are well known to reduce harm to patients.

 

Use of bundles as standard work throughout the inpatient platform - will reduce preventable harm from HACs. The hospital's aim was to creatively use both process and outcome data to empower teams. But in the project early phase, it became evident that technology was a limiting factor to obtaining real-time bundle compliance data. So, leaders looked to the hospital's safety culture tools and challenged teams to round with a purpose while at the same time collecting data around bundle compliance.

 

The Hospital team (Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital) made use of the lean tool - Kamishibai cards (K-cards), that provide scripting for a short interaction between staff and leadership.

Supervisors organized a series of K-Cards on a board and opt at random or basis a schedule - ensuring employees maintain safety standards, keep the workplace clean and perform quality audits.

 

At the hospital, the cards had brief statements reading like a checklist of bundle elements. Each interaction takes around five minutes and involves a component of conversation at the computer desk and at the patient's bed.

 

These cards were meant to initiate a dialogue and to see if each bundle item on the card is compliant. While all care elements are performed correctly, the rounder recognizes the same with verbal praise - to the nurses.

 

If an element is not completed correctly, it generates an opportunity for a discussion regarding the obstacles the nurse encountered stopping her from completing the desired care.

 

These interactions influenced important behaviors in staff and helped to collect process data. The K-cards provided real-time compliance data and instantaneous rectification of bundle elements that were not completed. They also provide staff the ability to connect their work to safe-guard against any harm.

 

Kamishiba or paper theater is a component of the Toyota Production System. They are visual control tools that help with the sequence, and completion of work tasks.

Kamishiba Boards display tasks according to a logical setup, like location, category against a certain time period. The board shows if the tasks are being done according to the logical sequence and if any problems were encountered and reported on.

An example of Kamishibai in the service industry is tracking the amount of time a customer service call is taking. The board can have multiple customer service representatives on it with the time that they are taking, when they go over the usual allotted time the board shows red, informing the supervisor that the problem might require their help.

Source: https://traccsolution.com/blog/kamishibai/

https://blog.gembaacademy.com/2006/11/21/what_is_a_kamishibai/

Kamishibai Board

History. The word Kamishibai comes from the word “paper theatre” which is a story telling method that originated in Japan in the 12th century. The Buddhist monks used this method of story telling to put across moral values and principles for the uneducated.  The people compared their lives to these stories which worked as a standard and made changes. It worked out as a system of self-audit for the society.

Introduction. The Kamishibai Board is a visual control board that makes the lean management principle of Genchi gembutsu i.e., “go and see” or MBWA “Management by Walking Around” effective and part of the daily schedule. It is a very simple and flexible visual tool. The board list the schedule of inspections/audits that are required to be done by the supervisors. During the Genchi gembutsu visit, the supervisor would be required to update the board. The board may be filled up with an X (problem observed), a triangle (problem observed and corrected), a circle (all well as per laid down standards) or an empty box that would indicate that the rounds were not taken. The Board may also have green/red colour cards with the details of the checks to be done. In case there was a problem, the card is reversed with the red colour facing up, drawing attention for action.  In order to introduce the element of surprise, the Kamishibai can also be done as random checks. It can be said that the Kamishibai system is a process confirmation methodology that is incorporated into the daily routine of the organization. It instills a culture of continuous inspection, audit, improvements. The Kamishibai system hence formalizes and prioritizes the checks that are made on the gemba.

Total Productivity Maintenance. Kamishibai can sometimes be akin to Total Productive Maintenance. The daily use of the board helps to detect degradation in the standards leading to preventive maintenance either by the operator or maintainer.

Audit. The Kamishibai board introduces a totally different perspective of conducting audits. It standardizes the periodicity, the manner in doing the audit by standardizing the expectations of the gemba, and hence it removes the variability between supervisors of the audit process. Some organizations call the Kamishibai system as a mini-audit that serves the purpose of checking the validity of the standards and continuously looking for new areas of improvement.

Location of Board. The boards need to be located at the workplace to ensure that the supervisor makes a visit to the workplace and to also ensure that the discrepancies observed are visual to the workers so that preventive action is taken without delay.

Kamishibai cards. The Cards may include the 5W1H information which is the what, who, where, when, why, and how

Kamishibai and Lean. Kamishibai supports the lean culture as it is used in the gemba walks, helps sustain the 5S, and looks for areas of Kaizen. On gemba walks, it directs the goal of the conversation towards the process instead of trivial issues. The Cards could include the elements of 5S to ensure that it is sustained on a day-to-day basis. Since Kamishibai is done on a day-to-day basis, it also helps to ensure that the improvements made are sustained and that workers do not slip back to the old process. A lean organization would make Kamishibai cards for all lean tools including Kamishibai itself. In the book Lean Transformations - when and how to climb the four steps of Lean maturity by Panneman, T, (2017) the questions that could be included in the Kamishibai cards covering other lean methods are Safety, 5S, Standard work, Team board, Kaizen, Knowledge, 5 Coaching and Kamishibai

 

References

https://www.lean.org/lexicon/kamishibai-board

https://blog.gembaacademy.com/2009/07/06/one_point_lesson_kamishibai/

https://incito.com/all-services/the-kamishibai-process/

https://blog.gembaacademy.com/2006/11/21/what_is_a_kamishibai/

https://www.mudamasters.com/en/lean-toolbox-lean-production/kamishibai

Panneman, T, 2017, Lean Transformations - when and how to climb the four steps of Lean maturity, Maarssen (NL)

Toyota Production System is known to use various tricks and methodologies to make mistakes obvious at the first glance. Kamishibai Board is yet another approach in the same direction. The ancient Japanese art form of Kamishibai has deep-rooted itself as one of the foremost management tools for performing audits in manufacturing environments.

Kamishibai Boards clearly highlights the status of Daily, Weekly, Monthly or even Quarterly Audits.

 

There are two prominent colors visible on the board – Green and Red. Green indicates the tasks and done and Red indicates the tasks are still pending.

 

 

Pros - 

1. These boards and simple and easy to use. During Gemba walks supervisors can easily identify the status of each of the tasks.

2. Skipped, forgotten or missed tasks can be identified quickly and vital remedial actions can be immediately implemented.

 

Cons -

1. If not used correctly and the status of all the daily tasks are managed through Kamishibai Board then it's likely to be left unused and not updated regularly.

 

Service Industry - 

 

Kamishibai is highly effective if used in the right fashion for both Manufacturing and Service Industries. 

 

There are a lot of key tasks in the form of review, quality assurance etc. that can be managed through Kamishibai Boards. Each of the managers/reviewers can update the status of their Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Quarterly tasks on the Kamishibai Boards and the Quality Assurance department will not be required to collect status reports from each of the departments individually.

 

Summary - The only thing to be mindful of is, not to overload Kamishibai Boards with all the tasks, use it for key tasks to reap maximum benefits.

 

Kamishibai is a Japanese word for “ Paper theatre” means storytelling. In this process audience saw and heard the story of the character in the play and try to compare their life with them. This is one of the prime focus of the life is self audit.

 

This tools first launched in Toyoto production system and use to visual control for performing audit within manufacturing process. In Lean Manufacturing , It is a practical visual control tool which promote easy allocation , execution and follow up of the activities. It support the better control the activities that are lined up. This board can be used for hourly , Daily , weekly or monthly activity also. It depends upon the application area. This board is consist of mainly two colour card system (Popular know as T- cards) which show all the activities and abnormalities with relevant information.

 

This board help Leader or the supervisor to follow up the better activity and plan the actions. It also add structure to Perfect Gemba walk. As during GEMBA walk it brings attention of Leadership team and support them to for auditing the process and drive standardization of the process. This is one of the prime reason this board used to place near workplace. This make it to availability in visible range.

 

This all application of board support the genchi gembutsu principle of Audit.

 

 This can be used in the Service department also. As Now a days this board has converted to digital format. As one of the best example can be used for Office 5S and other office communication like Banking where all the transactional activities can be easily tracked.

 

Q 389. What is Kamishibai Board in Lean Manufacturing? Provide examples how this can be used effectively in Service Industry.

 

It is said that ‘No problem is a problem’ Even if there are problems - we are just not able to see a problem.

 

When we speak about Lean, Audits are non-value add. However, we still need them to validate and verify that what needs to happen is happening and we want to make sure we have good quality. Which means we need to have a very robust audit system, one that is takes up as little time as possible and one that is very efficient, very visual, and we want to create that sense of urgency in that dynamic tension. Anyone walking into an area should be able to look at the communication board and be able to tell exactly what is going on.

This is where Kamishibai Board helps. Lean is about 2 key activities – surfacing problems and continuous improvement. Any business any system rife with problems – over production, underutilised resources, waiting, inventory, Shrinkage, motion. Transportation, over processing, - Kamishibai is the tool that is used to surface these problems.

 

It’s a;

-      Simple lean tool to perform audits

-      Simple yet versatile, flexible and easy to use audit tool

-      Lot can be achieved in short period of time

With hey features being;

 

Can be changed or tweaked – depending on the needs of the business

And a very efficient way to surface problems

Lean is about 2 key activities – surfacing problems and continuous improvement

Any business any system rife with problems – over production, underutilised resources, waiting, inventory,

Shrinkage, motion. Transportation, over processing, - Kamishibai is the tool that is used to surface these problems.

Kamishibai – often referred to as Control point standards – because you are actually verify that the Standards that you set up are actually being used and in place.

Can be used to audit anything and we can it whatever we want – team inspections,

 

Kamishibai – Actual means paper theatre – Japanese word – cards with pictures on one side and writing on the back, used to tell children stories.

This morphed into a simple audit structure by replacing the story with questions or whatever, we want to look at … with one side green and one side red… that is easy and quick to deploy.

Can be used to check safety, quality, delivery etc.

Often referred to as control point standards – looking at the vital processes and making sure that the things are being done the way it should be.

 

*Source – Gembaacademy.com

 

The Kamishibai board designs – we can come up with something that works best for the process or the business. In the spirit of lean, we may want to change it as we find better ways.

Teach, train and verify that what needs to happen is actually happening and validate if the processes ae healthy.

 

Supply Chain, Kanban, Lean tools – any of these can be checked via the card structure of kamishibai.

It’s a very flexible method – pull the card, read the question on it e.g. do a 5S check in the desk or a workstation nearby.

IF everything was fine – the card to be placed with green side out and red side facing in case there was a problem detected.

 

Why use?

-      Standardisation

-      Auditing to improve

-      Simplicity

 

Who can use?

Everyone is involved in checking their own work

Leaders are involved in checking their processes

Who	Scope of Checks	How
Team Member	In-process checks	Standardize work each cycle
Team Leader	Team and Zone	Check on / Involve team members
Group Leader	All lines, all zones	Check with TLs
Area Manager	Complete area	Involve all levels
Plat Manager	Site-level, departmental	Involve area managers

 

What can be checked?

-      Standard of work being done

-      whether people are maintain standards

-      Proper documentation being done

-      Whether forms are being completed correctly

-      Whether Quality checks are happening

-      Whether the existing forms, SOPs, data etc. are up to date

-      Whether 5S is being followed

-      Whether people are working safe, wearing PPE

-      Checks sheets where applicable are being followed

There could many such examples and infact we may want to change or cycle the cards 

 

Using the Kamishibai board / Simple Approach

Using the card that is relevant to the operations and what is important to the operation

The green side and the red side say the same thing – just that green side means ‘ Check completd OK’ and Red side means ‘Abnormilty found’ and surface the problem

 

 

If all cards are OK, place the card in the board GREEN Side showing

 

*Source – Gembaacademy.com

Interesting examples have been shared by all respondents w.r.t. the usage of Kamishibai Boards in Service industry. Hence, one should read all answers

 

Best answer was provided by Rahul Garg. Congratulations!