This is at the Terminal B baggage claim at DFW airport. There are three lights. And two signs. You tell me, which sign corresponds with which light? The baggage claim was already going, when the light on the right went off. It wasn't the “E-Stop Indicator” because the bags kept coming. Maybe it's a “more bags are coming light”, but it's still not obvious. The lesson learned for visual controls in a factory is that they must be obvious to an outsider. Be careful if the person putting the visual controls together knows an area too well. Otherwise, they will make assumptions that a new person won't necessarily be able to figure out. In this case, it just caused a chuckle to me, but it could be more serious in a factory.
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Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
[…] Bad Visual Controls at Baggage Claim […]