This Kaizen Tip is by our own “Ten Million Dollar Man”, James Rosenegk.
Take a look around you, what do you see? Clutter, cables, unfinished work, yesterday’s coffee cup. Home or office, for many of us there are sometimes just too many things to put off until tomorrow. Or maybe we just think and expect that someone else will do it for us.
Well surprise, surprise, unless you are prepared to take action now and do something about it then that pile of papers, that overflowing rubbish bin, that unpaid bill will still be there tomorrow. The frustration, guilt or stress that you feel about it now will still be hanging around.
Kaizen principles are a great way to shape up your life and one of the great methods to apply is 5S:
Sort – Get rid of all that clutter and unnecessary paperwork. Establish a clean desk policy at work and recycle all those old magazines at home.
Set in Order – Think about how you can organise things in the most efficient way. Would having your phone on the left of your PC stop you getting tangled up when you type as you talk? Would you get the kids off to school more quickly if you always left the hairbrush and hairbands in the same place?
Shine – Once everything is neat, clean and ready to use keep it that way. Much like having a weekly cleaning routine at home dust, tidy, re-sort, re-set in order for a few minutes every day.
Standardise – when you discover that better way of doing things whether the quickest way to process your email or the smartest way to load the dishwasher, fix that method (at least until you find the next best way). Following that same process each time you complete that task means that you maintain the gains!
Sustain – 5S is a discipline. You can’t do it for a week then forget it otherwise you will quickly end up where you started. You have to keep doing it – keeping to your filing system every day so that you don’t end up with unpaid bills or 500 unread messages in your email, making sure that the kids continue to put away their toys before bedtime every night and so on.
Kaizen principles are equally applicable in the office, in a field service van, a busy garage or at home and by following these simple steps will make an incredible difference to how you feel about yourself because of the small improvements that you have made.
Your call to action:
- Like your desk, home office or the children’s play room, identify one area in your life that constantly frustrates you.
- Bring to mind how much more pleasure you will get from having that area clean, tidy and organised every day.
- Take the next 5 minutes and start to apply the 5S principles to that situation.
- Now that you’ve started, agree today the next block of time available to complete the first 4S’s and then sustain them every day!
For more information on Kaizen, Lean or Six Sigma principles, email james@kaizen-training.com or visit our website at www.kaizen-training.com
