Do you have a workspace that has not been organized in years? Well, let me tell you,
I have an amazing method called 5S that in the manufacturing world we use heavily,
and the good news is you can use it anywhere - work, home, wherever.
So stay tuned, because in this video, you're going to learn all about 5S
and how to use it. Not only that, I would like for you to stay tuned to the end of this video,
because I have something really special for you, something on how to clean up your projects.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is Adriana Girdler, and on this channel,
you're going to get the best career and project management advice. So please consider subscribing
and join this awesome community. Now, if you're interested to learn about 5S,
which is sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain, you have come to the right place
because I'm going to teach you some things that you are going to love. So let's get to it.
What is 5S? Well, first and foremost, it literally is five S's, and it all came from Japan, from
Toyota Production Systems. And so in Japanese, all the words were an S. So when it got translated to
North America, we just continue with the S. So those five S's consists of sort, straighten,
shine, standardize, and sustain. Now, this is a technique that is used heavily in the
manufacturing industry. It is part of efficiency and productivity, and if you ever heard of Lean or
Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, it all comes from that elk. Now... Elk? Was that even right? Ah,
ignore that. It's all good, but it all comes from that genre. So it's really important as
foundation. If you're going to be productive and efficient, you need a really clean space,
and there's a way to do it to keep it clean. So this is what I'm going to share with you.
Sort, this is the first S and the first thing you do in the journey of 5S-ing. So sort is just what
it says. You're going to sort everything. So whatever area you go into, you want to take a
look at it and you want to start compiling things. What do you want to keep? What is it that you want
to potentially give away, recycle? And even what is it that you have to throw away, because it's
really just gone? And you may want to consider what's broken you may want to get fixed as well.
So this becomes really important because you'll be surprised how much stuff we keep around,
whether that's personally or professionally. We just have stuff that we just don't use.
So in this sorting section, when you do sort and you're looking at things from,
"I don't use this that often," you want to kind of give yourself a six-month rule.
If in the area that you're doing this 5S activity and you haven't used it in six months,
but you need it still, you may want to find a new home for it. So it's not cluttering up your space.
So the whole purpose here is to sort out stuff, just generically speaking,
what's out there to things that you only truly need and you're going to be using constantly.
Straighten is the next step. Everything that you just sorted and you're going to keep in that area
now needs to have a home. You need to find a place for it. And so you really want to straighten
it up. Now, there's a couple of ways that you can do this. You want to ensure that you have
to be smart. Anything heavy and you're putting it on a shelving unit should be on the bottom.
Things that you're going to be using immediately and constantly should kind of be at arm
reach so that you're not like bending down or going on your tippy toes to get to the top
shelf. If you're going to do anything in drawers, then make sure that you start using anything on a
visual perspective. So everything that you're putting in that drawer sort of has a home.
Now, the good news for you is I actually have some before and after examples for you that I've
actually done over the years in my manufacturing setting. So even though this is manufacturing, you
can still use these concepts, whether you're in an office setting, even in your own personal home,
just to give you an idea. So the first example that I'm going to show you is a supply cabinet.
Here's a picture of a supply cabinet before. And the picture of it
afterwards. Just how you're organizing it, being able to see things clearly through. We used in
the manufacturing world Lexan glass, or plastic I should say, so that you can actually see through,
and then how you store things. It really makes a world of a difference, particularly when that's
the supply cabinet for manufacturing line and you want to ensure everything you need
is at your fingertips, so your line workers are not running around trying to find stuff.
And another example I have for you the before and after is of a tool box, or in our case, a tool
drawer. This is huge and a big problem when you have to search for anything. Think of any drawer,
like a utensil drawer, even at your home, maybe you have your own toolbox or anything that you
search for. If you have to spend time searching and you can't find it immediately, it has a big
impact on your productivity and your efficiency. So in this straighten period, you actually want
to do what I have in the after picture. You want to have... Everything has a home.
So if that tool is taken, you know immediately whether or not it's there or it's missing. This
is the straightened portion is really finding a home for everything that you've chosen to keep.
Shine. This is now your cleaning stage after you've done your sort and your straighten.
You now want to make everything sparkly. Now, some people may think, "Adriana, I just sorted.
Shouldn't I just shine right afterwards?" Nope. You really need to find a home for everything.
Then you want to shine, because at this point, you're doing pretty well. You have everything
in its place. You want to keep everything clean. You want to make sure that everything that has
a home is dusted off, any garbage that's been in the corner, garbage cans that needed to be
tossed out and ensure that it is emptied. Anything you can do to
make things sparkle has a big impact. Now, I have another example for you
again from my manufacturing days of a tool shop and equipment and machinery. So the
before picture is just that. This is how they left this particular machinery at the end of the shift.
It looks probably fine for some people. Now take a look at the after picture. It's a huge difference.
This is now how they're leaving equipment - clean. Really spending that extra 15, 20 minutes before
the end of the shift really has a huge impact so that when they go back to that piece of machinery,
it's clean. They don't have to worry about anything. You can translate this in your home,
too. You know those dishes in your sink? Don't leave them there. Put them in your dishwasher
right away. Or if you don't have a dishwasher, wash them right away. It makes such a big
difference. It just keeps everything tidy, and it only takes minutes in order to keep that going.
Standardize. This is where this goes beyond just simple, "Let me clean up." How do you
put systems in place to ensure what you sorted, you straightened and you shined, stays that way
every day? Now think about it. When you clean in your home, what do you do? Probably in the
next hour, it gets messy again. I get it. That's life. But if you're in a professional setting,
how do you keep that going consistently? And this is where you need to standardize.
So standardization is putting in systems of what you just did. So what are some things that you can
do? Well, you can put labels on shelves, so you can assure that whatever you take from it always
goes back in the same place. You can put date stamps on items, so you know when things expire,
so you can get rid of them. You can also have generic maps, so people understand
where they have to go, or generic checklists. I actually have an example for you, maybe one that
we all know. For those of you who are from Canada and know Toronto, I have for you a TTC subway map.
That's a fantastic standardized technique. They actually have those maps in every single car,
over every single door. It's all the same way. So it doesn't matter what car you in. Everybody knows
exactly what's expected and when to get off. So that concept is what you want to bring with you.
There's also things like you may want to label and put tape on floor. That's very
big in the manufacturing area. So everything member has a home and that way with all
the labeling and visual management that you're going to do, it has a place to go.
And I have another example for you as well. So take a look at this particular cell that I did
for a manufacturing site, and beforehand, it was like all mess and really didn't have a home. So
now everything has a home. The tape dictates where things go and how they're going to build stuff.
I'm not suggesting that you do this for your home. I'm not asking you to put tape everywhere,
but here's a really cool thing that you can do too. Maybe you put a key hook beside your
front door or the door that you leave all the time, and that's where you put your key,
so you're never searching for them. It's this type of what are you going to put in place to
ensure that everything stays neat and clean? That is what the fourth S is all about. Standardize.
Sustain. This is the last S of our 5S journey, and this also is really important too,
because this is what takes it beyond just simple cleaning and putting away.
It's about how do you sustain all the systems you put in place and how do you keep everything going.
And the best way to do that is through empowering people, as well as performing audits in the area.
So in manufacturing, I'm not saying you go run in your home, doing a little audit. Now, mind you,
I definitely would probably do something like that because that's my personality. My
kids would kill me though, but I definitely have checklists for everything. But definitely in the
professional setting, like in manufacturing, we would do audits. We would check out the area.
We'd put lists of things that we can continuously improve on. Now, I have actually a picture for you
about our sustainment board that we implemented for one of my clients, which basically lays out
how things were per cell. Again, you can do this any way you want, but that
white board of information is really powerful and a big part of the sustaining process for 5S.
Now that you know all about 5S, what it is and how to implement it,
you need to do this - why projects fail? Okay? 5S is just as important as understanding why projects
fail, because this is going to keep your projects clean, your initiatives clean. Whatever it is
that you're doing in your organization, this is going to help you out. And I had it for you free
under this video with the link below. Check it out. If you learn something new, please like this
video as it tells YouTube that you are really liking our content, which allows us to grow our
community even more. On that note, if you have any comments, please put them in the comments below,
any experience with 5S. I would love to hear from you. On that note, see you in the next video.