August 16, 2007 3:35 PM
The 7 Wastes of the File Cabinet
Every six months I do an audit on our employee’s files. A process that is fulfills legal requirements that I have as head of HR, requirements that in my mind contain a lot of waste. As a matter of fact after doing this process I grabbed my ID badge sized 5S / 7Wastes card that had all the seven wastes listed and a pad of paper - I found an example of every one of the seven wastes in my filing cabinet.
Waiting: How many people wait for me to search through and get something from my file cabinet? Most of them because my file cabinet is locked when I am not using it, because there is sensitive information sitting in my file cabinet concerning employees, legal issues, accounting and customer information.
Motion: Searching, need I say more, how many times do I search in the file cabinet? Almost every time I go into it, I may know exactly what drawer and the main header on the file folder, but then I have to go through folder to find the document I need.
Inventory: I have to keep a box of file folders and hanging files on hand – why? Because I have a file cabinet that requires them, I can’t just throw all the paperwork into the drawer without them.
Processing: The fact is that almost every item I have in my file cabinet is also on my computer. Why do I have two file cabinets full of paper work? First let me say that I did have four of them, so I am better than I used to be. But, the laws require us to have certain items in paper form, the world still sends paper invoices, checks, notices, etc. and the majority of us, myself included, doesn’t trust the electronic world enough to through away our file cabinets full of documentation.
Transportation: Every quarter I go through each of my file cabinets and box up all of the previous quarter paperwork and put it into archive, which happens to be downstairs on the other side of our very large building.
Defects: While doing this I found a major defect in filing systems that is most likely common among all offices. Papers get “put away” and then shuffled around, when I took all my files out there were my papers I had “put away” sitting on the bottom of my file cabinet drawer.
Overproduction: While in my file cabinet I found folders and folders of pre printed material, this pre printed material was no longer valid, it came from a process that was outdated at least six months ago. I ended up sending it to recycle, and the folders they were in to the re-use pile.
Now I am sure that if I had grabbed the 7 Wastes Quick Guide and done the stand in a circle 30/30/30 exercise on the inside I could have come up with a lot more examples of the 7 Wastes of my filing cabinet. That is if I could see the inside of my file cabinet without wasting motion.
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