Clean and Dirty

     Here we are again ladies and gents, I just got home from the gym after a day that put the temperature around 115 with the heat index.  With that being said, today brought its own set of challenges that required compassion and creativity.  Well I was passing out popsicles and gatorade.  To all of you who are in management at any level,  $50 worth of popsicles and gatorade will yield dividends beyond belief.  Yes it has to come out of your own pocket, and yes you have to do your own work passing it out.  Though the report that is built and bridges constructed with this is beyond your wildest dreams.  For it is times like this that you get to take a few minutes with each of your direct reports and ask questions.  Oh here we go again, the people and questions route.  Going to Gemba, asking the right questions from the individuals who do the work to collectively come up with improvements.  Folks, I can't stress this enough.  You must engage your people on a personal level, otherwise you are looked at as an authority figure vs an advocate for them and more so an advocate for Lean.
     I know you all are thinking, yeah you harped on this topic in your last post.  I will admit I did, but I'm going to hit it once more that Lean is a people based system.
     So let's get to the prime cuts of steak that were on the table today.  My team and I decided to 5S a tool laden table.  Not just any table but a table without order, without rhyme or reason, total chaos.  How it got this way is neglect, plain and simple.  The important thing is the 5S process we went thru and the sustainment measures my team and I put in place to prevent this from happening again.  Anyone can clean up, anyone can move some dirt around,  it takes some common sense to understand that we need to prevent it from happening again.  What also must be considered is the saftey aspect of having an unkept work area.  For instance how many times are we going to leave these heavy tools lay around that can roll off the table and break our foot.  We all know there is an assigned place for them yet it is just faster and easier to leave them out right?  Consider the pain and suffering that a broken foot will cause, workmans comp, possible lawsuit, etc.  See where I'm going with this.  Yes, wearing my risk mitigator hat I want to reduce risk.
     Look what happens when we save time not looking for stuff and utilize that time doing things that are value added.  Productivity ensues.  Ok I have to admit, I totally didn't come up with that comment.  My personal Yoda added that as we were discussing the 5S process and what my wins were today.
     I also must pay tribute to Paul Akers and his Kaizen foam.  That stuff is better than sliced bread and is highly versatile when using it to secure all sorts of objects in drawers.  Don't forget the label maker as well.
     To close todays post I'd like to tell everyone to remember that a filthy and unorganized workspace is unproductive and unsafe.  Rudimentary observations... yeah I know but next time you are out and about in your laboratory aka *job, look around and just see what is going on.  Are flat surfaces catching all sorts of junk, are areas in need of order?  Be honest with yourself when making these observations and remember this is a growing experience.  Growth starts from within.