Reflections ... 5S is a Journey
Do you have a room in your house that is “cluttered”? I do. Two weeks ago it was our sports garage, cluttered with stuff – worn out balls, unused weights, even a bin of football notes from when I was coaching. So on a Saturday morning I brought out the kids and introduced them to Lean 5S. We took everything out of the garage and lockers, placing in the middle of our driveway. We separated the stuff into two piles – keep and trash. After some tough discussions (“why do you still want to keep those football notes?”), we filled two large garbage drums with trash. Next we reorganized the garage – ball racks, weight trees, etc. Then we cleaned the stuff that we were keeping and put them back in their place – balls in ball racks, weights on weight trees. Each night when we practice basketball or baseball or soccer, we take the right ball from the rack and we put it back at the end – no exceptions.
Is this perfect Lean 5S? No. But Lean is not so much about perfection as it is about a journey of improvement. And Missy keeps reminding me of that as she walks into this office as I type.
This week we have shared Lean 5S tools with our field teams and messaged the focus on our OutageBuzz social channels. Why? Because we believe that a lean job following 5S principles is more likely to be a safe job. How is that?
Among the most common accident causes in construction are slips, trips and falls. An orderly And tidy site has less clutter, with a place for everything and everything in its place.
Sanitation is more critical now than ever with the threat of COVID-19. An orderly and tidy site, with good “shine”, is a healthy site.
Hazard awareness is something we all struggle with. We don’t see the snake in the field until it bites us. An orderly and tidy site using standards helps us quickly identify where the snakes/hazards exist and how best to mitigate the risk of being bitten.
Implementation of 5S leads to an additional S, that of increased Safety. By committing to maintaining a clean and clutter-free space, you can reduce the presence of safety hazards both at work and at home.
5S is more than a Lean tool used to obtain immediate results. It’s a key part of a larger continuous improvement journey. We want to change the mindset from once and done to how can I do it better next time.
Championing 5S brings value to our customers as equally as it brings value to us. Below is customer
feedback praising our teams for their demonstrated excellence in embracing Lean concepts.
Fairless Hills, 5-Star Customer Rating
“I just want to say how great Adam and the crew were this outage … I cannot say enough with what they accomplished in such a scary time. Just an incredible job. I don’t ever remember seeing the crews as
focused as they were during this outage. I WANT THOSE EXACT FEs, APM CREWS, and PM FOR EVERY OUTAGE GOING FORWARD!”
—Jake