"ISN'T 5S JUST ABOUT BEING CLEAN?" | 5S Your Life! | 1.06
LISTEN TO LEARN | 5S Your life! | LBFF 1.06
Kicking off our series on the Imai Process of Continuous Improvement, where we go into a little more detail about some of the Lean tools in our toolbox, is 5S or the first stage of our Continuous Improvement Journey!
“Isn’t 5S just a fancy name for a cleaning program?” NO! It’s So much more than a cleaning regime…Listen to find out why!
WATCH TO TRY | 5S Your Life! with Sarah Staggs | LBTT 1.06
Can we really 5S in our personal and professional lives? Does it really change the way we think? Watch our latest interview with Sarah Staggs, a CT Technologist and Interior Designer. Sarah discusses with us how to make 5S fun and something that everyone in the family can participate in! She also shares how her creativity and style is not limited by 5S…Watch to find out more!
READ TO APPLY | 5S Your Life! | LBCC 1.06
The Imai Process of Continuous Improvement is my favorite methodology for implementing lean. There are many philosophies around implementation of lean and many opinions surrounding this concept as well. but i have found the most benefit by following Mr. Imai’s vision…
The cover picture for the next 5 months will be the stages in the imai process with a circle around the tool we will be going into a little more detail about during the month. (As we progress each month, I will highlight the stage as I did below with the current month’s topic.) The Imai process progresses in the following stages:
- 5S
- Linkage & Flow
- Standard Work
- Visual Controls (often times stages 3 & 4 are done at the same time)
- Real Time Problem Resolution
This month we discussed 5S and how it is much more than a cleaning program. Most Continuous Improvement Journeys start with 5S. You may be asking yourself, “why? What’s in it for me (WIIFM)? Isn’t this just about cleaning and taking my personal stuff home?”
The WHY: 5S is all about changing the way we think about our processes and procedures. The purpose is to remove the waste from the process (SORT), put needed items back into the work area (STRAIGHTEN), clean it up a bit (SHINE), Put some structure around needed item placement (STANDARDIZE), and maintain the new structure (SUSTAIN). There might be a 6th S of SAFETY in some organizations. by having a place for everything and everything in it’s place, the individual can waste less time in searching for items to complete the work and hopefully be more efficient and happy.
The WIIFM: I believe we as humans crave order and structure. When our lives or relationships are in chaos, we do not function well. This is why people visit Therapists, to have some form of normalcy (or structure) added back to their lives. Like children need boundaries to thrive in their development, adults need it too. 5S helps us establish that structure in a way that makes sense to the people doing the work. Hopefully resulting in a more productive and efficient process yes, but also a sense of calm and structure to their workday. Notice I did not say anything about taking personal items home. My recommendation: if the personal items are overwhelming the work area, making it difficult to get the job done, then they need to be taken and displayed at home. But there is NOTHING WRONG with having personal items in your workspace, they can “Spark Joy”, just make sure that they are not excessive.
A word of caution: If the Culture of the organization is ready to implement a Continuous Improvement Journey, it will embrace the concept of 5S. If the Culture is not ready, they will fight it, avoid it, and sometimes badmouth it. If you find the team is badmouthing the 5S program, it would be wise to take a step back and see how the 5S program was rolled out or is evaluated. I have found that the more bureaucratized the process of evaluating the 5Ses, the more resistant the team is. We at Leanbrella would recommend that changes should be made to return to the concepts of the WHY and the WIIFM behind doing 5S.
5S is not limited to the workplace. it can be performed in our personal lives as well. there’s nothing quite so rewarding as a spring clean out to kick-Start the spring and summer months. If you find yourself floundering in emotion or struggling to focus, take a look around your home…You might be surprised how clutter can really cause a cluttered mind. If you need some inspiration, contact us! or there are thousands of streaming TV programs to get you started: The Home Edit, Tidy Up! with Marie Kondo, and even Hoarders are all shows that depict the basic concepts of 5S.
If you need help in your 5Sing? Don’t hesitate to reach out to Leanbrella for support! I have been known to clean out closets and garages…But above all, if you embark on a 5S journey…You might surprise yourself with how much better you feel about your surroundings and life in general…Embrace that feeling!