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More than meets the eye

By Jusko, Jill
Publication: Industry Week
Date: Wednesday, October 1 2003
HEADNOTE

THE VISUAL WORKPLACE'S UNHERALDED BENEFITS INCLUDE AN EMPOWERED WORKFORCE AND SUSTAINED MANUFACTURING IMPROVEMENT.

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Rolls-Royce PLC helps establish visual control using labels, shadow boxes and color (see Page 77) at a plant in Germany, where it piloted its visual methodology.

THE VISUAL WORKPLACE, SAYS GWENDOLYN D. Galsworth, is "like this voluptuous woman draped in veils, and every time you take another veil off it reveals new facets.

Galsworth, author of "Visual Systems: Harnessing the Power of a Visual Workplace" (1997, AMACOM) has been engrossed in the field of visual thinking for 22 years and says it still is "continually coughing up new surprises and wonderful new benefits."

For those unfamiliar with the field, Galsworth defines a visual workplace as "a work environment that is self-explaining, self-ordering, self-regulating and self-improving-where what is supposed to happen does happen on time, every time, day or night because of visual devices."

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