5S – Sort

Sort:

‘Where are my socks?’ – husband

Where did you put them? – wife

You always take my socks! – husband

It wasn’t me! – wife

Does this sound familiar? Why do these things happen? How we can avoid them? The answer is very simple. Every item should have a defined place. This place is where we store this item permanently. If we use it and take it out of this place we should take it back immediately when we’ve finished using it.  Why we can’t keep to this simple behavior? Maybe there is no defined place for the item at all so it could be anywhere. Maybe it has a place but the owner (kids, wife, husband or colleagues) doesn’t bother to put it back. Maybe you simple forgot to take the item back to the permanent place. Maybe you want to do something with it later on but you don’t have time so you leave it somewhere else. Maybe the baby took it away or hide it somewhere.  There are endless examples.  Here’s what to do:

1. Have a permanent place for everything
2. Do not relocate items (husband’s socks, kids’ toys, etc) to another place without telling to the owner or user
3. If you use it take it back to the original place immediately, do not leave it until later

The same applies to an office or production site. Each tool and piece of equipment should have a place. You can save a lot of time if you don’t have to search for items or ask others if they’ve seen them or used them, and you can avoid a lot of frustration at the same time.  It’s a small principle but very valuable.