Applying 5-S in Life...

[M.D. Holloway]

5-S - A workplace organization methodology centered around five Japanese words which start with the letter S. The Japanese words (and their English transliterated versions) are: seiri (sorting), seiton (straighten or set in order), seiso (sweeping or shining), seiketsu (standardizing) and ****suke (sustaining).

Imagine if we tried doing this all the time at home and at work? In our workshops and our closets? Talk about cleaning up ones shyt!

[rick-l]

You're supposed to finish everything you start. I went down and decided to finish the bottle of gin I started last night.

[hook682]

Looks like you drank the corporate kool-aid

[madmmac]

Originally Posted by hook682

Looks like you drank the corporate kool-aid

No s***.

[Z-man]

At my work, they are pushing the "Houston initiative" - PMP related gateway & documentation process. All of these (Houston, PMP, 5-S, Six-Sigma...etc) can be effective at managing projects and businesses. HOWEVER, they can easily become a cog in the wheel that severely slows down the entire project's process.

My take: use whatever works for you - from writing notes on paper napkins and post-it's to embracing the Six-Sigma process. But don't jump on the bandwagon of every new process just because it's hip and cool to do so.

-Z

[M.D. Holloway]

I saw it done to an extreme at a plant last week. they had everything labeled down to where the labeler was supposed to be! This place had one heack of a neat tool room, inventory bins, the whole place was sorted out like a show room. When I asked if the liked it the maintenance guys and operators said at first they hated it but quickly grew to like it. It made things just work better including work flow.

Messy environs lead to messy work.

As for napkins, thats my choice of note taking media!

[svandamme]

how about 5T's ?

Toss everthing in the dumpster so the desk is clean
Tell everbody to Eff off so you can focus on yer work
Talk to the customer and listen to his lies
Take a full week proving all the individual lies
Then fix the problem you could have fixed earlier in the week if only they hadn't lied

[968rz]

At my work they call it 6-s and after the last round about a month ago all the pertinent and important backed-up info is gone, smart move I say.

[stomachmonkey]

Friend if mine owns a commercial print plant realized a long time ago that clutter/lack of access to information/general sloppiness was costing him big money so he set about fixing it and wound up creating a second company that now consults for others to provide the same efficiencies,

Lean Manufacturing | Business, Task, Project Management Software

Watch the Tour of a systemized company.

[Seahawk]

When I was the Chief Government test piolt at the Sikorsky factory in the mid 90's we took on a few Kaisan projects.

The result were very compelling and we were able to really streamline the production acceptance flight test procedures.

On an administrative Kaisan, we tracked every DD-250 (the form the government uses to accept product from a vendor) in the factory. We found that there were over five dead people on the DD-250 distribution list still getting copies

Every enterprise needs a periodic spring cleaning...tailor the tools available.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by svandamme

how about 5T's ?

Toss everthing in the dumpster so the desk is clean
Tell everbody to Eff off so you can focus on yer work
Talk to the customer and listen to his lies
Take a full week proving all the individual lies
Then fix the problem you could have fixed earlier in the week if only they hadn't lied

Your one cynical mthrfker..

[tabs]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

5-S - A workplace organization methodology centered around five Japanese words which start with the letter S. The Japanese words (and their English transliterated versions) are: seiri (sorting), seiton (straighten or set in order), seiso (sweeping or shining), seiketsu (standardizing) and ****suke (sustaining).

Imagine if we tried doing this all the time at home and at work? In our workshops and our closets? Talk about cleaning up ones shyt!

Ahhhhsooo Porkchop....those inscrutable orientals...if you follow program you will soon have slant eyes and be eating fish heads...

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

5-S seiri (sorting), seiton (straighten or set in order), seiso (sweeping or shining), seiketsu (standardizing) and ****suke (sustaining).

In bed.

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by Z-man

But don't jump on the bandwagon of every new process just because it's hip and cool to do so.

-Z

+1 on that.
How about "Lean Manufacturing"? EVERY place I've seen it it turns into Anorexia Manufacturing. Without going into the, literally, gory details it caused a death to a mold operator at a plant I worked in.

5S again not taken to extremes is good, forcing people to be neat. And yes I could use it at home!

[Rick V]

Originally Posted by tabs

Your one cynical mthrfker..

You say that like it is a bad thing

[Scuba Steve]

I think it has its places, but I've seen work groups go completely overboard with 5S to the point where it only gets in the way of getting things done.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

5-S - A workplace organization methodology centered around five Japanese words which start with the letter S. The Japanese words (and their English transliterated versions) are: seiri (sorting), seiton (straighten or set in order), seiso (sweeping or shining), seiketsu (standardizing) and ****suke (sustaining).

Imagine if we tried doing this all the time at home and at work? In our workshops and our closets? Talk about cleaning up ones shyt!

I was introduced to 5S at my new company, and it was a big shock coming from University, where the most creative professors have piles of papers to the ceiling of their offices, and the most productive labs look like a big mess.

In our company, things looks so clean all the time, it seems like nobody is working, and when one is working, we worry that someone is going to make a remark that things are not looking 5S...Leave an experiment on the bench for next day, and people are going to frown at you. As often, the idea is good, but the problem happens when it is implemented and enforced my managers who are never actually working with the stuff they want to be 5Sed...