Tag: waste

Using 5S

5S can be a powerful tool to help you identify when something is out of place.  The idea is to maintain order by having a place for everything and for everything to have a place.  Knowing when something is out of order will help you to quickly identify and address problems.  This tool is also useful because it implements preventative maintenance by utilizing check sheets and encourages all employees who are affected by a process to have a say in changing and maintaining that process.

tool-organize5S is as follows:

  • Sort (Seiri)
  • Set in Order (Seiton)
  • Shine (Seiso)
  • Standardize (Seiketsu)
  • Sustain (Shitsuke)

Sort: Go through the work place and red tag everything that is not being used.

Set in Order: Put everything in a logical order and place. Keep things ergonomically correct.

Shine: Things must be clean and ready for white glove inspection.

Standardize: Document a process and keep check lists to maintain order.

Sustain: Perform audits and involve workers in continuous improvement to controle this cycle.

Eliminating waste

Waste can come in many forms and from a variety of places in your organization. By the time you are trying to cut costs by reducing the amount you spend on paper towels just to make ends meet, it is too late.  It is time to hang up that paper towel.

Entrepreneurs spend most of their day putting out fires and when the rest of us get to go home, they start to do the real work. The best way out of this is to eliminate your biggest problem using a Pareto chart. Then when the bulk of your time is freed up, elaminate your next biggest problem, and then your next biggest problem until you maximize your time.

Another great visual tool to help you see wasted steps in a process is a Process flow diagram. Seeing a process layed out in front of you will often help you see the obvious waste you can immediately cut out. This tool will also help you define what you are doing. If you cannot define what you are doing, then you don’t know what you are doing.

Use these steps to move from putting out fires, to obtaining more of the most valuable resource you have. Your time.

-Brandon