We are almost home. The Finish Line is in sight. The next stage in the 5S journey is to STANDARDIZE.
Standardize– by Webster’s definition, to change (things) so that they are similar and consistent and agree with rules about what is proper and acceptable. Well this should be easy. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. The easy part was really Sorting, Straightening, and Shining. Creating a new standard is hard work. You don’t have to look much further than the nose on your face. Examine any time in your life in which you tried to change the standard in your life. Some examples that come to mind might be:
- Adhering to that rock-solid New Year’s resolution
- Making a promise to yourself about losing those extra pounds
- Promising not to eat any fast food
- Getting up before sunrise to go for a walk or to just have some peace and solitude in your day before the chaos enters
- Promising to use that gym membership at least 3 days a week
- Eating healthier and meaning it
- Drinking less alcohol
- Making a promise to stop smoking
- Making an appointment to see the doctor about that “problem”
- Saving more money
- Leaving work on time (arriving on time is important too)
- Not letting the little things, you dislike about your neighbor, get under your skin (Love thy neighbor as thyself)
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? I would wager one or two apply to most people I know. All of them buck our individual standard. The current state of your life is challenged by these new rules that you want to invoke upon your life. So, if you have trouble tackling your own change in standards, you can imagine what happens when your office staff decides the rules are going to change. It doesn’t happen overnight.
Standardization is a very challenging phase of implementing 5S in the office. Why? Because it impacts all the different standards everyone has in their own mind about how they like things to be. It should be easier from the mere fact that this is not your home, or your life, it is your work environment and you are only using the space that someone has leased to you do perform the work you are being paid to do. You don’t own it. The company owns it. So now it is time for the company employees to come together as a team and determine how, what, when, who, where and why, 5S practices are going to standardized. That’s the entire summary of the standardization objective. The team needs to develop a set of rules that establish consistency, sense of purpose, clearness (or attractive visual display of where things are), and of course, professional appeal. This is a team effort to establish, for all practical purposes, a daily/weekly/monthly To Do List for your office’s operations. Take the time as a staff to talk about standards you observe outside the office setting. You don’t live in a cave, so there should be plenty of examples all around you that define how good standards run the business, the brand, and exemplify quality of service. 5S standardization in the office provides the same benefits. Your team should now go to a white board or flip chart and define how you want things to look; how you want things to be cleaned; who will be assigned cleaning tasks; determine minimum and maximum levels of office supplies; and “first look” acceptable appearance of all aspects of the office when you arrive in the morning.
All the rules of engagement the team develops must be understood and agreed to by the entire staff. The team owns the standards and it should be easier for the team to follow the rules they created themselves rather than some dictate, handed down by management. 5S standardization is a participatory sport. It is not nominating a department mother to tidy up the pig pen each day. Now is the time to write your standards. One additional piece of advice, don’t settle for mediocrity, but rather seek perfection. You may not necessarily get everything right the first time, but aim high, settling for anything less is not acceptable. How nice would it be to have your desk drawer organized like the one below?
I know you think this is a bit extreme, but how would you like to go into a grocery store looking for something that was organized like your desk or your co-worker’s desk? (Note: Do you remember the photo of my co-worker’s desk in Chapter 3?) You think it will be a little frustrating finding that grocery item if it somewhere in that pile of stuff? Not if it was organized like the desk drawer. Your grocer does make life easier for you by organizing aisles, shelves, and store layout by 5S visual management standards and practices. Labels, signs, and consistent storage and placement of goods is the application of 5S methods the grocery store uses to not only make life easy to shop for the customer but also to maintain organizational order for all company associates. Your office demands the same attention, the same standardization. Something that isn’t apparent in the grocery store standards is that you, as the customer, are not aware if anyone didn’t show up to work, or was on vacation. The work, as it pertains to you, was accomplished without incident, because everything you see is arranged accordingly. Nothing appears to be out of place. So even if Jim, the butcher called in sick, the meat counter was still stocked appropriately. He didn’t hide the knives. Is the office able to operate under the same transparency? Standardization opens the door for sharing work related responsibilities and prevents the function of the department from missing a heartbeat. Are you able to log onto the system, quickly retrieve a file or folder, to complete the work of an absent employee needed for the day?
Sustain – The last S is the true recognition of the success of your achievement. You either are committed to the charge or you just bought another gym membership you will never use. Sustain is the discipline of maintaining and improving upon the new standards you have created. How long will it take for the garage to get filled with clutter again? The office represents the same environment with things slowly seeping into areas where we think people won’t notice. The bad habits return unless we are diligent enough to abide by the standards, the new rules we, ourselves, created for the office. And who can enforce these rules? Only you. Everyone is accountable but it starts with you doing your part, which may mean diplomatically jabbing your co-worker about maintaining the order. Secondly and maybe more important, the boss needs to step up and insist the new desired state is to be held as the new constant and when it falls short, immediately callout the system’s shortcomings. If the boss overlooks the situation, then subordinates immediately perceive that 5S really isn’t important and in no time at all, the old environment returns. It is funny how quickly things erode versus how long it takes to create a better order.
With all that has been stated, just reflect a moment about any company that you believe has a reputation for superior product quality and excellent customer service. I am going to step out on limb here and wager that this company is not just a “flash in pan” business but rather one that has survived many years, probably several decades, in a very competitive business environment and turbulent economic cycles. What makes them better? What makes them tick? What is the secret to their success? I can assure you that somewhere in their equation of success, a factor called 5S has entered the formula. Top of the house management determined the 5S factor was going to be a constant in the daily grind. Not a fear factor, like the TV show, but a 5S factor when nurtured, delivers results to sustain the business gains. Sustain is the staff keeping the faith and loving it while they are doing it. My visual image of sustain is like a soldier preparing to go out into the battlefield. The soldier abides by the things he has been taught and trained to do before going to battle. This means wearing the proper PPE (personal protection equipment); ensuring it all functions properly; the firearms are cleaned; ammo is ready, shoe laces are tied properly; clothing tucked in; no dysfunction found in any element of his preparation. 5S sustain is like a military discipline. The only rule being is to never let the system fall into complacency. Easier said than done. Every day, everything needs to be put back into its place, to make all things functional ready for the next use. Now it’s time to lace up those boots!