Work That Makes Sense

Gwendolyn D. Galsworth, PhD, is president/founder of Visual Thinking Inc. and The Visual‐Lean Institute® (collectively “VTI”). Dr. Galsworth formed her company in 1991 as a consulting, training, and research firm, specializing in the technologies of the visual workplace. Since then, she has focused on codifying the field of visuality into a single coherent framework of thinking and application.

In 2005, Dr. Galsworth established the Visual‐Lean® Institute where inhouse trainers and external consultants are trained and licensed in nine core visual workplace courses—including Visual Machine®, Visual‐Lean® Office, and Visual Leadership. In this way, they can train and implement these in their own companies (or with their clients) and achieve a fully‐functioning, self‐sufficient visual enterprise. VTI conducts seminars, workshops, and train‐the‐trainer events in the USA and around the world.

A former Baldrige and Shingo Prize examiner (eight years), Dr. Galsworth helps companies all over the world to accelerate their rate of visual transformation, strengthen cultural alignment, and achieve long‐term, sustainable bottom‐line outcomes. Her clients include: Lockheed‐Martin, Hamilton Standard, Pratt & Whitney, Hitchcock Industries, Royal Nooteboom Trailers/Holland, Crown Equipment/Mexico, Trailmobile/Canada, Parker Denison, Crown/Mexico, Rolls‐Royce/UK, TVS Sundaram Clayton/India, Crompton Greaves/India, Sears Home Services, United Electric Controls, and Wilson Transformer /Australia. She is a former Malcolm Baldrige and Shingo Prize Examiner.

Dr. Galsworth and her team are continually transforming their research—new knowledge and knowhow— into improved products to assist you on your journey to workplace visuality.

Recognizing the fit between The Shingo Prize and workplace visuality, Robert Miller, former executive director of The Prize, put it this way: “The visual workplace, as taught by Gwendolyn Galsworth, is in perfect harmony with the model of Operational Excellence represented by The Shingo Prize. The concepts, tools, and methods of visuality are essential as we pursue other guiding principles of seeking perfection, quality at the source, and the continuous flow of value to customers.”

Dr. Galsworth is a Teaching Fellow on the faculty of the Shingo Institute and author of seven books on workplace visuality and strategic improvement. Her ground‐breaking book, Work That Makes Sense: Operator‐Led Visuality, contains over 500 full‐color visual solutions and provides a step‐by-step process that operators follow to convert their work areas to visuality that is sustainable. Galsworth’s book, Visual Workplace‐Visual Thinking, provides a complete foundation in visual principles and practices and her 10‐ Doorways model. Both books are winners of the prestigious Shingo Prize.

Her book on the cost of complexity, Smart Simple Design/Reloaded, takes a hard look at the costs and challenges of product diversification. In it, she maps out the Variety Effectiveness Process (VEP), a proven method for de‐complicating the organization by simplifying product architecture and dismantling layers of imbedded complication that choke a company’s infrastructure and product design process. Once VEP is effectively applied, the need for both visual and lean is significantly less urgent.

Dr. Galsworth’s career in operational excellence began as the head of training and development at Productivity Inc. in the early 1980s. There she worked closely with Dr. Ryuji Fukuda to adapt the CEDAC® method for western audiences—and with Dr. Shigeo Shingo to develop, among many things, poka‐yoke as an implementation methodology for the West. While there, she was also principal developer and implementer of Visual Factory, TEIAN (operator‐led suggestion systems), and Hoshin Kanri/X‐Type Matrix Planning (policy deployment).

Gwendolyn holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University, has led study missions to some of the world’s finest companies, including in Japan, and is a frequent keynote speaker.

Dr. Galsworth now lives in New England where she happily works, hikes, and writes.