5S for Your Workspace

I sat down at my desk this morning and started jotting down some thoughts I wanted to note. What I didn't realise is that I as writing on a Christmas Card Template for my child's school, a template to be printed onto Christmas Cards by a fundraising company to raise money for my child's school.....oops

I looked around for a notepad and realised I had a mix of personal paperwork, course notes, children's artwork and work notes all sharing the small space of my home based desk. I wondered if I needed a new desk as the one I have is a slimline style and fits into our living area but after some consideration I accepted that the one I have is perfectly adequate but I could use it more effectively.

As I began to sort the various items into relevant piles I was reminded of 5S and decided I would follow a 5S process. 5S is a Lean Manufacturing 'philosophy' used to eliminate waste and maximise productivity but can also be used in an office or any workplace. It's all about getting an area organised in a way that makes sense for it's purpose and keeping it that way!

The five steps of 5S are

• Sort

• Set in order

• Shine

• Standardise

• Sustain

I started to sort my desk, checking pens and dumping any that didn't work, threw out notes no longer needed, I was ruthless with paperwork I have been hanging onto but not found any use for and that too went in the bin. The paper pumpkin decorations my children had made were also fare welled (don't judge, they weren't great and I can't keep everything!). Old thank you cards and receipts soon joined the pile in the recycling bin. I was already feeling more positive about my space.

Next is Set in Order. I got 6 nice paperwork boxes, I think they were called Box Files online. I chose 6 different boxes and labelled them with clear easy to read descriptions of their contents.

Now that the desk was clear I could give it a good polish, clean my keyboard, monitor and laptop. I then found a nice reed diffuser that would keep the area smelling fresh.

The 4th step of 5S is Standardise. In a workplace this would relate to different people using the same tools, space or desk. For example, hot desking may have an expected standard, maybe a 'leave it how you find it'. At my daughter's preschool each of the play areas had large photos to show how the area should look after a tidy up which helped the children independently help out. Taking photos is a typical tool of 5S and such an easy way to set an expectation. As my step 4 I gave my children a box each and explained the new process - we would keep the desk clear, take out the relevant box when we needed it, open it on the spare chair beside the desk and then clear it all away when we were finished at the desk.

Last comes Sustain. Naturally this means keeping the space the way we want it but takes effort and ongoing discipline. As with any process improvement it also means asking if this is working for us. I will see how my desk looks at the end of next week to understand if my 5S approach is working for my workspace!

Outlined tools is a useful visual management idea as part of a 5S process, it was easy to see where each tool should be returned.