Have you ever visited someone’s office and found they have stacks of paper all over the place? They have a difficult time finding anything they need! And typically, if you ride to lunch with them, their car is just as disorganized as their office. Your friend needs to employ the 5Ss of Lean: Sort, Store, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
Sort out what’s not needed. People tend to keep something just incase it’s needed in the future. Sorting is all about removing what you don’t need from the work area and keeping only what you need to perform the process activity.
Store neatly what is needed. Create locations for everything you use in your daily work. Have a place for everything and everything in its place. The more frequently you need something, the closer it should be to the work space.
Shine and clean the area. After organizing the area, make it clean and tidy. Take time daily to keep your area and equipment clean. Keeping equipment clean can help you detect problems with it in the early stages.
Standardize the layout. Find ways to make sure everyone keeps the work area in its new state over time. Standardization is the art of getting everyone to adopt the practice of cleaning and following the new procedures for sorting and storing.
Sustain the effort. Management must develop training and standard operating procedures to sustain the effort over time. This should also involve continually identifying new opportunities for improvement.
You can apply 5Ss to all types of working environments, anywhere. No matter where you work, keeping an orderly work environment leaves less opportunity for mistakes and inefficiencies.