I’ve often written about how lean manufacturing methods can be applied to the home, but working on lean in my inlaws’ home has now made me realize something that could impact lean in manufacturing. How often do you consider the frame of reference of your team members when trying to implement lean concepts? Let’s take the workplace organization activities of 5S as an example.
The basic principles of 5S require that you sort and organize. You red tag old equipment, tools, parts, and other materials… and then get whatever isn’t needed out of your operation. This frees up space, reduces clutter, and thereby reduces muda. This is fairly easy for the younger employees to understand, especially if they recently escaped the cramped confines of a dorm room or first apartment. Minimization is key to simply being able to walk around.
But what if you were in your late 50’s or 60’s?
If that was the case you would have grown up during the aftermath of the Great Depression, and experienced World War II. Times were rough. In some cases there were products but no money, and in others there was money but a shortage of rationed materials. Everything was saved, and very creative ways were found to reuse and recycle almost anything.
It was also more difficult to get parts… you couldn’t simply go online and order something from your workstation, and have it delivered by FedEx or UPS the next day. Actually this change of mentality also affects those of us in our late 30’s and early 40’s! In a pre- Home Depot world It was easier to rummage through a huge bucket of random nuts and bolts to find one of the right size than to run around to a myriad of small hardware stores hoping they had the required part in stock.
So here comes this new whippersnapper engineer with this great idea for something called "5S", and she wants you to get rid of all your buckets of parts. That flies in the face of your upbringing, your frugality, and what you’ve learned to be an efficient way of getting a replacement part fast. There better be one heck of a supporting argument!
And perhaps that’s what we need to do a better job of, and not just for the older generation. We need to explain WHY 5S works, and what we want to accomplish with it. We need to explain what the vision is and why it is important. We need to sincerely listen to and discuss the concerns. For that is the mark of a true leader working to create a lean culture.
Mark Graban says
Toyota is known to be an extremely frugal company. Putting aside any generalizations about generations and their attitudes, how would you reconcile Toyota’s frugality with a willingness to not keep stuff of little or limited value? Is it more a matter of being frugal in not having more space than you need? Space/land/buildings in Japan are very expensive, correct?
The one complaint I always get about 5S, particularly with old manufacturing maintenance stock rooms (junk rooms) is from a guy who says “we 5s-ed that, then turned around and had to buy another”. Well, I tell them, if we needed it, we shouldn’t have “5s-ed” it. We should only get rid of things that aren’t needed. If you have to, run a calculation comparing the holding cost with the cost of purchasing a new one (including a probability that you will need one).
That said, I bet Toyota was trying to conserve valuable space and land more than anything. If you’re in a factory with more/cheaper space available, maybe you should err on the side of keeping that old servo motor in case it’s needed later this year?
Thomas Sortino says
Toyota, in the person of Ohno I believe, has stated that early in their journey they were ‘blessed’ with the following: an aging workforce, limited funds, limited space, and a growing demand for product. What these factors led to was a fanatical focus on minimizing costs, space, and strain on the workforce among others things. 5S, Right-sizing, and ergonomic and work rotation policies are among the outcomes of these blessings and focus. Are 5S activities less critical for companies that have more space to store things? Maybe, but then there are studies and data to show that clutter reduces efficiency, be it parts and bits in the shop, or stacks of paper on a desk. I have found that once an area is well Sorted, the people in the area will develop both the appetite and the understanding needed to make the keep vs let-go decisions. We as implementers need to trust this learning process.
The need for explaining the reasons behind 5S is not likely to go away, especially in office applications (‘we’re different, it doesn’t apply to us’), so it is best to collect some practical examples of success and support as you implement. Internal examples are best, but outside examples will work if you are just starting.
One way I have successfully planted the 5S seed is to ask people about their kitchens – are the dishes/plates/glasses always in the same cabinet? Does the silverware drawer have an organizer tray? Those are the beginnings of 5S.