The Toyota Way, Second Edition: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, 2nd Edition

 Principle 7 

Use Visual Control to Support People in Decision-Making and Problem Solving

Mr. Ohno was passionate about TPS. He said you must clean up everything so you can see problems. He would complain if he could not look and see and tell if there is a problem.

—Fujio Cho, President, Toyota Motor Corporation

We can take in information through our five senses—see, hear, touch, smell, and taste. There is a lot of evidence that for most of us sight is the most powerful sense for learning, recalling, and using the information. In John Medina’s popular book Brain Rules,¹ he gives us “Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.” Medina summarizes:

  We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll ...