Posted 3:51 PM by Mark Graban
I think the more valuable concept, related to 5S, is "standardized work". In any role where there is a repeatable process, such as maintenance, engineering, procurement, sales -- standardized work is absolutely applicable and helpful. I think of 5S more in terms of team-based organization -- make sure everyone can find shared tools, etc. An employee misplacing information that only they use -- I'd call that more a case of a person being disorganized than it being a "5S" situation. The abuses of 5S I've seen include telling employees that they can't have family pictures or personal items on their desks, because it's "non-standard". That's the ridiculous type of extreme that I'm talking about.

I had to explain "standardized work" to a sales group once when we had three meetings in a row where there had been time zone confusion, confusion over which conference call line to use, etc. Suffering through that "waste", everyone suddenly valued the concept of standardized work for scheduling a meeting. We all agreed that there's no creativity required for scheduling a meeting.

Food for thought....