Pasquale Bergamo

Visualization

Challenge & Seletion

Visualization, as exposed by Angela Meyer in the Visualization Tool video, is a  core component of how we communicate and creates consensus, as everyone  involved understands an idea the same way as their peers. Not only does it help to  improve decision-making and agreement, it also levels the field for the people with  less process savvy, using graphical expression (images, drawings, diagrams, etc.)  to involve them with the process or situation.

I work in the ever-changing environment of the logistics industry, delivering all  kinds of packages with the help of a team of one hundred couriers and three other  supervisors. As a result of the pandemic, the challenge of an exponential growth of  e-commerce was born, and we had to hire more couriers and acquire more vans,  in order to level the work charge. This situation triggered two overlooked issues  that came with the expansion: inefficient use of the space for load/unload activities  and poorly trained new personnel, so we had to come up with a solution quickly.

Application

To solve both problems, we assembled a group of six people, including one  coordinator, two supervisors, two experienced couriers and two new ones, in order  to expand our sight and involve our customers (the couriers) in the process. As we  defined the problems, we agreed that we had to solve both issues and find a way  to communicate the changes in a way that anyone, at any level, could understand.

I suggested following a brainstorming approach with sketches and diagrams, to  gather as many ideas as we could, having in mind how we wanted to see the daily  activities flow. Everyone started drawing in post-its for the layout problem, since it  was the main one to overcome, and we ordered them in a wall. Then, we grouped  them by process flow comparison and proceeded to select the best group. The  best layout idea was a mix of the coordinator and the experienced courier ideas,  which takes notice of the speed of implementation, process effectiveness and ease  of understanding.

On the other hand, by using this visualization approach, we quickly realized that we  didn’t have to do another brainstorming session to address the poorly trained  personnel issue, only because we had the answer in front of our eyes, as the new  courier stated when we were in the middle of the brainstorming. With the best  group selected, we already had the drawings of how the day to day would be with  the new layout, so we contacted the company’s internal communication designer,  to help us transfer the ideas into a friendly set of images. These images were  transferred into posters distributed throughout the building, and used to train all the

Pasquale Bergamo

employees, who also received them by text message so they would be available at  any given moment.

Insight & Approach

Evidently, only one solution was implemented, which contrasts with the use of the  learning launch tool. This simple statement is part of what I learned to take into  account in this type of ever-changing environment, because we always need faster  ways to solve the issues that cross our paths, but one agreed upon solution may  not always have positive results, as some complications appear only when  implemented and changes could not be operational or financially feasible.

Finally, my deepest learning in this experience was that visualizing a problem and  coming up with ideas to solve it, following that imagination technique, is an  overlooked tool by many people I’ve come across as an engineer. We create  processes and physical things and imagine them, but the process in which we  come up with the ideas or communicate them is not always visualizing with others  or thinking about the customer. Visualizing is a tool I’ll keep using individually and  collectively, because of the short term benefits it has.

