We at the Kaizen Institute often have the opportunity to travel with our work, and recently I spent two weeks in Bangkok delivering a number of Lean training workshops on behalf of one our global clients.
As usual, I found myself at a bit of a loose end during the weekend and decided to head into one of Bangkok’s splendid shopping malls, in the central city.
As detailed in previous articles, I have made it a hobby of mine to note and document examples of Lean thinking in everyday life. Bangkok did not disappoint me, and these photographs need no explanation as to their meaning, and tell the whole story of what you might be looking for and why!
So excuse my bathroom humour, but I thought these might raise a smile, and I’m sure you will agree, these are good examples of Visual Standards!
Maybe this might give you some inspiration for your Visualised workplace? Remember, every picture tells a story!
There will be further examples that I will share with you in due course!
We at the Kaizen Institute run a series of public short course training sessions on Lean foundation tools and techniques. Check out our web site for the dates of our next training sessions.
We at the Kaizen Institute offer guided Kaizen Lean study tours to Japan each year, to view the best practice in Lean and to see how Japanese organisations including Toyota operate.
These tours have been running for almost 30 years, and are expertly guided by our founder, the original Lean guru, Masaaki Imai. I have been fortunate to attend a number of Lean study tours over the years; however there is nothing that compares to the Japan Study Tour, whereby you can directly observe the origins of Kaizen and Lean Thinking.
During my visits to Japan I have made it a hobby of mine to note and document examples of Lean thinking in everyday life. If you believe that the Japanese culture of Total Quality purely relates to the factories and offices, I assure you there are plenty of examples to see just about everywhere you go.
So, one of the things I have noted over the years is the wearing of white cotton gloves. I have noticed that a variety of Japanese employees have taken to wearing these pristine white gloves, which arguably are part of a uniform or a safety countermeasure, however I am not convinced.
My interest was now piqued, I see gloves on train drivers, bus drivers, cleaners and smartly dressed stewardesses…
Is this another example of 5S thinking?
What is the meaning of the wearing of the white glove? Is this a statement from each employee saying that my workplace is so clean and well maintained I can wear white gloves with no fear of them getting dirty? Is this maybe another personal form of Visual Management, see how white the gloves are, so don’t bother checking my workplace?
I have some photographic evidence from my Gemba observations for your perusal.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this matter. What do you believe wearing white gloves means?
Furthermore I have written to Masaaki Imai for further clarification and I will advise in due course!
I recently spent some time in Japan, attending our Kaizen Tour, experiencing Kaizen and Lean first hand.
At the end of the week long study tour, I took an extra day to visit Tokyo, and a small group of us boarded the Jinkensen (Bullet Train) and headed to the capital to sample the sights and sounds.
Tokyo is well worth a trip whilst in Japan, just to sample the hustle and bustle of over 12 million people living in the metropolitan area. As you can imagine, this is a bit of an eye opener for a guy from little old NZ!
After a busy week on the Kaizen Study Tour, I realised I needed to do a little retail therapy, so I headed to Shibuya one of the main shopping areas in the centre of Tokyo.
This is shopping on a grand scale! Here there are large department stores such as Seitan and Seibu; Seibu is 7 storeys high and covers almost an entire block! This area also has electrical and electronic stores that are packed to the rafters with all of the latest electronic gadgetry and consumer electronics.
Walking around these immaculately maintained streets was awe inspiring, everything very neat and tidy, just like the factory floors and offices we had experienced on the Kaizen tour the previous week.
During my trek around the streets, it began to rain. The Japanese people seemed to have a countermeasure ready for every eventually, all had umbrellas, secreted upon themselves, which they duly produced to keep themselves dry. I of course wasn’t quite as well organised and had to duck in and out of the stores in order to keep dry.
As I was heading into the main entrance of one of the larger stores, I noticed a curious device positioned in the entry way, which had a picture of an umbrella on it. I watched for a few moments as a gentleman took down his wet umbrella, and placed it inside the machine. The guy gave it a bit of a wiggle and then low and behold, when he pulled it out the umbrella was now fully wrapped in plastic film!
As you might appreciate, I was puzzled by this practice, and wondered just why you might do this?
Curiosity got the better of me so I took a couple of photographs for evidence to try to solve the mystery function of the umbrella wrapping machine!
So what’s this got to do with 5S? Remember that 5S isn’t just something that applies at work, 5S is really about self discipline and continuous improvement, and in fact Safety, which is often referred to as the 6th “S”.
The purpose of the “umbrella wrapper” is simple. When you use an umbrella, you will want to put it down when you enter a store. Of course the umbrella is wet, so as a countermeasure you can seal your umbrella in a plastic wrapper, stopping the umbrella from wetting your clothes or bag. So the primary function is to prevent the customer from getting wet from their own umbrella, a really good piece of anticipating the customer requirement.However there is another benefit to the store, water isn’t dripped throughout the store, which improves safety and reduces cleaning.
By the way, just to show that they are always thinking of 5S, there is a rubbish bin strategically positioned next to the machine for when you wish to dispose of the used wrapper on your way out of the store!
So what do you think about umbrella wrappers catching on around the world…I don’t think here in NZ it will be very popular?
If you wish to learn more about Japan Study Tours, please click on the link.
My recent trip to Japan has reminded me just how wide spread and deeply ingrained 5S is in their operations, and in everyday life. Just like KAIZEN, 5S is everybody, everywhere and every day.
5S is often mistaken as being a housekeeping program, or simply keeping your office desk clean and clear before you go home every night. This is grossly underestimating the depth of the whole philosophy of 5S, and the fact that it is one of the fundamentals of lean thinking and Kaizen.
I have heard many stories of how people did 5S for a day, a week or if you are lucky, a month! Maybe they got a team together for a day, took some great pictures and ticked the 5S box thinking that was it!
This is a very shallow appreciation of the true philosophies that support continuous improvement. Beware! 5S is a long term journey and not a flavour of the month.
The Kaizen Institute are recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities and practitioners of 5S and our founder, Masaaki Imai, is writing extensively about 5S in his 3rd book, which is near to completion.
We love 5S so much, our German colleagues have established a “5S Fan Club”, where 5S best practice is celebrated and organisations are able to exchange ideas, and you can even get a t-Shirt!.
Check out their web site at http://www.5sfanclub.com
Enjoy!
For further information on 5S coaching please contact rsteel@spam.kaizen.com
Many of us are familiar with the Japanese philosophy to creating a high performance workplace through optimising the workplace organisation. The 5S program refers to five Japanese words, but to simplify, these have been Anglicised so we can all understand.
1. Sort Out:- remove any items or excess items that are not immediately required to do the work
2. Straighten: – “a place for everything & everything in it’s place”, mark and label the location of each item, and arrange for ease of use.
3. Scrub or Shine:- involving employee’s in the routine cleaning and checking of the workplace and equipment.
4. Standardise:- establishing the rules or guidelines so everyone can understand the best, simplest and safest way to organise the workplace
5. Sustain or Self Discipline:- where the whole organisation is practicing the 5S program, from the CEO to the car park attendant. 5S is used as part of the continuous improvement system and all standards are adhered to.
So how can we utilise the 5S principles to boost our own personal productivity and morale? We have all seen the before and after shots of those gleaming well organised factories and offices, so how can we personalise 5S?
On a number of occasions, my clients have mentioned to me that they felt that Kaizen and in particular 5S helped them in their personal and home life, so to this end I thought I’d start to share some examples of personal 5S which you might like to adopt for yourselves. Over the next few months, I will add some new examples for your digestion, and I will make sure we will inject a little humour along the way!
5S for Shoes:
I recently read an article in an airline magazine, giving some tips for the frequent traveller, and I was drawn to one particular idea that caught my eye.The suggestion was that you buy a “shoe bag” to pack you business shoes into, before packing into your suitcase. The benefit of using a shoe bag is that you don’t get dirt and polish on your clean clothes, and the bag itself acts as a visual cue to remind you to pack them. I have added a little Poka-Yoke by storing the shoe bag inside my suitcase to remind me to use it eachtime I pack.
Feeling proud of my 5S idea, and fuelled by motivation to add a little more Kaizen, I had the idea of adding a travelling shoe cleaning kit. How many times have you gone on that long trip and not polished your shoes for a week? Hardly a good example, and I know to some clients this is an important standard, especially as I have recently worked with the Police and the Army!
Travel shoe shine kits are one of those things that you see all the time until or course you want to buy one. I opted for putting together my own concoction with a visit to Katmandu (a retailer here in NZ) and the local supermarket.
So there you go, a couple of 5S tips for the busy executive, with a shoe bag I have a place for my shoes which helps me remember to pack them and a shoe shine kit which means I can be well turned out with shiny shoes!
I am working on a few new 5S ideas which I will share with you once they are implemented. Maybe you have examples of your own?
By Danie Vermeulen, @DanieVermeulen
I took one look at my bloated Twitter page and decided that is a perfect candidate for applying “5S”. Loosely interpreted, this proven Japanese approach means to sort out your mess; arrange it to become functional; clean it; standardize the way you’ll use it in the future and then to make your new organised and clean way a habit.
As a start I asked myself two questions:
1. WITFM? What’s in Twitter for me?
I accept and respect the fact that many people use Twitter for many different things and in many different ways … I also know what I want Twitter to do for me.
I’m not interested in thousands of followers. So, I don’t follow anyone only so that they can follow me … I follow only those who share the same interests as me or who interest or inspire me. I also don’t care if those that I follow decide to follow me back.
2. What is my Twitter Follow Capacity (TFC)?
I’m not constantly connected to Twitter via my Blackberry – instead I only “check in” to Twitter a couple of times per day. I used my gut feel to cap my TFC at 100 – thereby conceding that I probably can’t read all the tweets of more than 100 people at one time. Of course, I’ll keep an eye on my TFC and ratchet it up and down if my TFC 100 is too high or low.
With this new-found Twitter Focus I’m ready to launch into my Twitter 5S (T5S).
1st “S”: Seiri (整理) Sorting:
Going through everyone that I’m currently following, it is easy to spot the ones that don’t really fit my new clear focus. Nothing personal, some of these are very nice people, but they have to go. For instance, gone are some token, feel-good celebrity type people that I follow (is it possible that some of these don’t personally write their tweets?).
I still have huge admiration and respect for these people, but I do have a cap on my Tweet Follow Capacity.
2nd “S”: Seiton (整頓) Straighten or Set in Order:
The Twitter site does not give me much flexibility for this “S”, but through applications like TweetDeck I can group different topics / threads together so I can find new tweets by topic or by person.
3rd “S”: Seisō (清掃) Sweeping or Shining:
After doing such a good job with my first “S” there is not much more to clean. However, I did tidy up my profile and settings, some of my old Tweets and remove some of those who follow me to get rid of any junk. I’ve also blocked Followers who shamelessly sell revenue schemes, porn, or anything else.
It is good to see that Twitter is also doing a bit of a clean-up … tinyurl.com/lfa7gw
4th “S”: Seiketsu (清潔) Standardizing:
I’ve come up with my own standard - a few simple “rules” to make Twitter work for me in the future.
Rule 1: New people will have to “compete” with existing ones that I already follow to ensure that I stick within my 100 TFC. I’ll gladly follow real / authentic people who add meaningful updates about KAIZEN, Lean, efficiency, productivity, innovation, leadership, etc. I’ll also follow a few people who are truly inspirational or funny or help me learn new things or improve what I do (it is easy to quickly read through their earlier updates to determine if they’re good enough to replace an existing person on my top 100).
Rule 2: “3 strikes and you’re un-followed”. If anyone posts 3 meaningless comments in a row, I’ll un-follow them to free up space for someone else. I like links to relevant breaking news & good relevant blog posts and articles, etc. I like good “quotes” and I like good or thought-provoking observations and opinions. Some interesting updates about who’s going where or busy with what are OK, I can tolerate some light chatter about general happenings. But, blatant sales pitches, trivial comments for the sake of saying something, or general “noise” counts for me as a “strike”.
Rule 3: I don’t really care who follows me, because I’m not selling anything. For me it’s mostly about who I follow to make Twitter work for me. I hope to contribute enough interesting comments so that some may decide that I’m worth following. However, any blatant seller of anything will be blocked.
Rule 4: Comment as if I’m one of my own followers and only post relevant comments that deserve to be read by like-minded Tweeters.
5th “S”: Shitsuke (躾) Sustaining the discipline:
In this case it should be fairly straight-forward to sustain this focused new way of using Twitter. I’ll keep an eye and continually assess my 100 TFC to maintain a high quality Twitter feed that I can read and benefit from.
Of course, everyone has different Twitter requirements and objectives – and rightly so!
I like the concise simplicity, the dynamic extended connected community.
Ultimately, for me Twitter means Quality over Quantity. Less is more. Happy Tweeting!
Now how about applying the same 5S technique to better organise our emails, office, garage, shed, kitchen, and everything else?
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