This weekend, I did some Spring cleaning. I cleaned and organized the garage. I know that doesn’t sound exciting to some, but as a professional who practices Lean principles, organizing not only is part of my career, but naturally therapeutic for me. It’s just something about seeing an area and assessing how to make it better, neater, more efficient. I turned on some music, put on some gloves and 1.5 hours later, I was smiling with my end product.
5S is a Lean principle that ensures a place for everything and everything in its place. It’s a fundamental in implementing Lean. I’m a believer that the same principles for physical transformation can be applied for how we see any problem. Sometimes we take a look at situations and think they are daunting and wonder how we will ever see our way through them. It’s in those moments, that I take a deep breath, analyze the situation, develop a plan and get to work.
5S stands for Sort, Set In Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.
As the graphic outlines, you can see how applying the steps of 5S, you can view and tackle personal obstacles.
How do you think about overcoming issues? What other Lean principles would you be interested in discussing?