5S Quote

"The less clutter,
the less visual
stress."

The following video shows a great way to explain 5S

Catchy phrases for 5S implementation

These phrases could help you when implementing 5S

for Sort:
when in doubt throw it out

for Set in order:
A place for everything and everything in its place

for Shine:
Seen through the eyes of an important visitor

for Standardize:
Sort, straighten, and shine always

for Sustain:
Make 5S a habit

The following video shows a great way to explain 5S

Time Management Series Post (1) What is Time Management?

"if management is the art of getting the right things done, time management is perhaps the single mos critical management skill"

These are the topics that we will be covering during the next posts:

1. Analyze how you currently spend your time and pinpoint opportunities for improvement
2. Identify which tasks are most critical to achieving your long term goals
3. Plan your time efficiently using scheduling tools
4. Control time wasters
5. Put your schedule into action, evaluate it along the way, and modify it as needed.

What is Time Management?

Time management is the process of controlling your life through your use of time.

Everybody has the same 168 hours a week. When you manage your time proactively, you determine what you value in your professional and personal life, and you direct your efforts accordingly.

By mastering time management, you will be learning to balance the many pressures on your time and still achieve your goals, this helps your avoid burnout and stress, and allows you to be more effective. Keep in mind that time management is a personal process: only you can judge where you are using your time wisely.

Time management has 3 different phases. These 3 phases do not necessary need to be follow in order, you will to decide which one is more critical for your particular case.

Phase number 1: Analysis

Phase number 1: Planning

Phase number 1: Follow up and evaluation

Analysis

In the analysis phase you need to find out where your time is going right now, pay particular attention to what drives your use of time, In some cases you will discover interruptions that you can manage with specific strategies. In other cases, time factors are less controllable but may have patters that you can learn to work within.

Planning

Review your goals, outline the tasks required to achieve them, an determine how much time you will allocate to each task. It is equally important to identify tasks that do not support your goals and assign a low priority to them.

Once you understand your key tasks, you can schedule your time using a calendar or daily planner. You can also develop strategies for dealing with time wasters like frequent meetings. If your work is affected by factors beyond your control, like the stock market, develop contingency plans in advance so you are prepared for the unexpected.

Follow up and Hansei (Reflection and adjustment)

After you have followed your plan for a reasonable period of time, step back and reflect. (Hansei)

• Did you achieve your goals?
• how well did your schedule work?
• What would be done better the next time?

Using the results of this analysis and reflection, modify your scheduling strategies for the future, then begin the planning process again.

Now I want to make a parallel of this 3 Phases to the well known PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act/Adjust).

The 3 phases that were just described are a variation of the PDCA Cycle. This is just another application of the Cycle on Time management.

Next: Understanding where you time goes.....

Practical Problem Solving (3) Step 1 = Clarify the Problem

During this step the person or team that is solving the problem should basically do 3 things.



a) Clarify what the current situation is

b) Clarify what the Ideal/Target situation is and

c) Visualize what the gap between the two is. (here is where you need to quantify What is Happening and What Should Be Happening also know as WIH vs. WSBH)



Visualizing the Current Situation, Target and Gap:





A very important question that you and your team need to ask is:


How does solving this problem align with company expectations?

This is a very important question, since you do not want to spend resources in doing things that are not align or are contributing to the overall goals of the company. For this reason is it so important that everybody understand the vision and the plan that the company has in order to achieve the vision. Please see the post about Blue Sky.

During this step please consider the following questions that will help you clarify your problem:

- Why am I looking at this problem?

- How does solving this problem relate to the purpose of my work in my current role?

- What is my Ultimate Goal in solving this problem?

- How solving this problem will add value to your company?

Next: Break down the Problem

Why vision statemets fail to deliver results? The use of a Blue Sky

Why do vision statements fail to deliver results?

Let's start with the definition of a Vision statement.

Simply put a vision statement is the inspiration, the framework for all the strategic planning that a company does.

The vision statement answers the question about where does a company wants to go.
Having a vision statements is a great start for any company, but having one does not mean that you know how to get to the place you describe in your vision.

But How do we get there?

Well, you have to develop a plan to get there and today in this article I will try to help you get started with this.

One methodology that can help us develop such a plan is called: Blue Sky.

A Blue Sky is the link between the vision and the operational improvements that a company wants to achieve. A blue sky aligns the functional areas to create momentum for change. A blue sky serves a the mecanism to cascade down all the tactical actions required while serving as an excellent mean to communicate the direction that the company is going.

Since the blue sky helps set the vision the operational objectives and the strategy, it is always use withing a policy deployment process or Hoshin Kanri.

It is worth noting that a blue sky is a pictorial representation of the key operational goals.

The process to create a Blue Sky for your company looks like this:

1- Organize a brainstorming event

2- Present the Blue Sky Goals and process

3- Brainstorm elements of the company blue sky

4- Create pictures to describe the elements

Once you have created your blue sky, you will have to develop a plan to achieve the blue sky. This is going to be discussed in a later blog.

Tomorrow we will go into detail about how to generate the Blue sky following the steps mentioned before

How a 5s Map can help you sustain your 5s efforts

A 5s Map is one lean tool that help us set the standard about how a station, an office or an area should look like after 5s.

If you have been trying to implement 5s in your office on in your factory you might be running with one common problem : "Sustainment".

How can you make sure that people are sustaining the 5s efforts?

People tend to forget if they are not reminded about how a place should look like or what exactly needs to be done to maintain a standard. The 5 s map helps you resolving this issue

Please see example of a 5s Map:

The map should idealy have a picture o a drawing of the area, indicating the place where the containers, work in process, tools and cleaning supplies need to be located.
The map should also include a very short description of the task that the operator or employee is expected to complete in order to complete the 5s Activity.
This tools is also an excellent visual aid for supervisors, team leaders of managers to spot problems or opportunities for improvement. Since the map is indicating how things should look like, the supervisor or manager can quickly perform a check and confirm if the standard is being follow. The following Video shows a great way to explain 5S

Visual Management and 5S - Video

This is a video explaining the basics of visual management and 5s, this is a perfect material for people that are starting the journe of improving their operations. It is also a perfect material for people trying to introduce lean in their offices