The 5S Doctor Is In

Many organizations are on some sort of formalized Continuous Improvement journey.  Many of those use 5S as a tool to improve productivity and maintain the order in workplaces.  Having been involved in many of these journeys directly and many more as a consultant, I have diagnosed and named two diseases that afflict most facilities.  They are, as I like to refer to them, the Twin Killers of:

• Horizontalitis - the accumulation of 'stuff’ on any open, horizontal surfaces
• Encapsulitis - the accumulation of 'stuff' in any storage container that can be closed.

'Stuff' is anything not required to do the job at hand, anything that has accumulated over time, anything that needs a more permanent home, or anything that gets in the way of the value added work at the particular work place. 

Think about any work area, office or operational, in your facility.  Now go to it and just observe.  Look at the horizontal surfaces.  What's on them?  What should be there?  What shouldn't be there?  The items that shouldn’t be there are classic Horizontalitis.  

If you can do it in a non-judgmental manner, open up any file cabinet, storage device, or anything with a drawer or door.  What do you see?  Sure, there are very necessary items.  However, it is very likely there is also many unnecessary items as well.  This is classic Encapsulitis.  

These are clearly made up words, but the symptoms and the impacts are very real and can negatively affect productivity in any work place in any facility.  Over the course of my next two posts, I will go into details of both of these diseases, including most common symptoms, less common symptoms, how to 'cure' any area and how to prevent them from coming back. So, stay tuned!