5S Still Gives Companies Fits January 19, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in 5S & Visual Management, Lean Thinking.Tags: 5S, Lean Thinking
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Jamie Flinchbaugh of the Lean Learning Center answers a question on Bosch Rexroth’s lean page. One on 5S was recently posted in their latest email newsletter. You can read the question and answer on Mark Graban’s LeanBlog page. Most companies start with 5S because it’s simple. It may be simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In his reply, Flinchbaugh describes one of the most common problems with 5S: 5S that looks good, but functionally doesn’t work. There’s looking pretty, and then there’s a stable, low-waste, visually managed work area that helps identify problems. They are two different things.
Read the post here.
5S for E-Mail January 11, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in 5S & Visual Management, Lean Thinking.Tags: 5S, lean
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In the Lean Blog, Jamie Flinchbaugh of the Lean Learning Center provides advice on how to apply 5S techniques to email. These are simple, effective tips.
See them here.
5S for Crash Carts December 8, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in 5S & Visual Management, Lean Thinking, healthcare.Tags: 5S, healthcare, Lean Thinking
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Looks like hospitals in the U.K. have caught on to what we Lean Thinkers have known for a long time:
- Not being able to find things can have some very undesirable results.
- The reasons why that is often the case is because “we have always done it that way”.
- The fix is to break existing paradigms and apply some solid 5S and visual management techniques.
A design team re-imagined the ubiquitous “crash cart” from the ground up, with eye-pleasing and efficient results that staff seem to appreciate (once they’ve picked up the pieces of their broken paradigms, that is).
Check it out:
Read the article here. Read another blogger’s assessment here. Read a further description on the Lean Blog here.
WSJ Article on 5S Misses the Point November 7, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in lean office.Tags: 5S, lean office
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The October 27th issue of the Wall Street Journal ran an article – front page below the fold – on 5S. Now normally, I’d be overjoyed that lean gets front page treatment in the mainstream press. Unfortunately, the article was about as poorly researched as they come.
The article describes 5S at Kyocera, and highlights outlining and labeling, the elimination of clutter, how management communicates 5S to get compliance, and area inspections. I read the article twice and could not find the word “waste”, a single principle of lean, the involvement of workers in the area, or the business results of Kyocera’s draconian, top-driven approach.
The WSJ goes on to describe a 2002 application of 5S at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. It states:
Employees created new places for everything to eliminate the need to hunt for things. But doctors and nurses in Mr. Boze’s pod kept hanging the stethoscope in its old place on a hook, instead of putting it in the drawer marked “stethoscope.” “Eventually,” says Mr. Boze, “we had to remove the hook.”
Hello? Hey, who says the spot the employees created was the best location for the stethoscope? Why are you hiding a common instrument in a drawer instead of out in the open where it can be visually managed?
You can read the whole article here at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122505999892670159.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
I watched the letters section for a few days afterwards, expecting Jim Womack to swoop in and unleash a scathing rebuke. But alas, no Lords of Lean stepped up to set readers straight. And I let a golden opportunity pass by.
Hey, WSJ. I’m watching you.
