Kaizen Shop Talk

Recently I wrote about good uses for our mini posters and one of those suggestions was to place them next to your Kaizen Newspaper.

An even better idea was brought to mind when a client placed their new PDCA Poster next to their Kaizen Newspaper and problem solving board.

Placing this poster where you use the Plan, Do, Check, Act process gives those, both using and reading the Kaizen Newspaper and going through their problem solving activities, a clear understanding and reminder of the cycle. It is also bright and colorful bringing attention to it.

All posters are great visuals in both the office and the shop floor. Making work visible, making work visual helps our businesses. Get Visual!

In a recent entry I discussed using the 5S evaluation forms in the office. Yesterday, I did my monthly audit using my 5S Evaluation Forms. While doing so I trained another office employee in her first audit and found some strategies that may be helpful:

1. Be tough on scoring your statements.
Remember that you are looking for ways to improve, if you score your area with a five, you are stating that you can not improve on this.

2. Be specific in noting your improvements.
Most likely you will not be acting on these improvements right away, leaving you time to forget what you had meant in your short hand notes.

3. Take your time.
I do this once a month, if I rush through this process I am not working at solving the problems, just completing a task without thought.

4. Have someone go over it with you.
A second set of eyes always helps when you do any task, no matter how good you are at it.

5. Do the audit on a scheduled basis.
An evaluation is only effective if you can look through and see improvements. Get a notebook and keep your evaluations for that area in there, look for improvement to see if this is working.

For more information, or to learn 5S better look to the 5S Action Pack or Office 5S Action Pack.