The 5S Doctor is In - Part 3 of 3

Thanks for waiting, again.    The 5S doctor will see you now.  

Recall from my previous post the definition of encapsulitis is the accumulation of 'stuff' in anything that can be closed and its contents are not visible without opening a door or drawer.  'Stuff' is anything not required to do the task being performed.  

Symptoms of encapsulitis appear in file cabinets, storage cabinets, flip-tops in cubicles, drawers, tool boxes, closets, refrigerators, and the trunk of your car.  Less obvious, but no less serious symptoms, include inside equipment control panels, cardboard boxes of any size, and file folders.

Take a look at any file cabinet anywhere in your facility.  Without opening a drawer,  are you absolutely certain of what is it contains, and what shouldn't be in there?  If not, it suffers from an acute case of encapsulitis.  So why cure encapsulitis?  As I stated earlier, 5S is about productivity.  Regardless of how well items are stored inside a thing that can close, people are being paid to open and close doors and drawers all day long.  Clearly, non-value added steps.  Now you are thinking "So I pay my employees to perform non-value added steps like opening and closing doors and drawers.  Big deal.  It doesn't take that long".  And you would be right.  Individually, opening and closing doors and drawers does not take long.  However, multiply that by how many times per day, how many people per day and ultimately how much time per year is spent simply opening and closing doors and drawers.  And if you don't know what is in there, you would add the time it takes to open and close drawers, searching and not finding the intended item.  So I would say there is justification to do something about it.  

Much like horizontalitis, the ideal cure to encapsulitis is to eliminate the thing that can be closed and store items as close to point of use as possible.   Again, easier said than done, but never impossible.  Store items on open shelves, in open top storage bins, vertically on shadow boards, hanging from pegs, on clipboards that can be hung vertically, or on peg or pin boards.  Another solution, when appropriate, is to remove the doors.  If necessary, replace the doors with something allowing visibility without opening.  Plexiglass or expanded metal works very well in these instances.  This also allows for securing items, while maintaining order.  

I have hundreds of examples of cures to encapsulitis I would be happy to share with you.  If you think you have a case of encapsulitis that can't be cured, contact me and let's discuss it.  I am always up for a challenge.