We talk about limiting the amount of Work In Process (WIP) inventory, especially inventory at the point of use. Here's an example which helped bring that home for me.
Mick is a friend and pays attention to Lean principles. He described to me his method of keeping his file drawers both organized and under control.
It seems he has about a drawer and a half which he can use in his cubicle for filing. Company policy prohibits additional storage space in the cube. While some whine about it, Mick adapted to it. His system is simple:
- All his files are labeled and placed alphabetically. So, the file for "Kaizen Events" comes just ahead of the file for "Logistic Planning". He does not try to put subjects together, unless he names them as such (so, he told me, "Vendors-Critical" would be next to "Vendors-Potential")
- He creates new files as needed, such as when a new project comes up or a large file needs to be subdivided
- When he creates a new file, he removes an old file. He usually shreds or recycles the old file. Thus, he never takes up more space in the file drawers. And never needs to add space. Knowing him, I suspect his cube is neater than others as well.
"What about the old files?" I asked. "Don't you lose that stuff you pitch?"
"Ha!" said Mick, anticipating my question. He described for me, at some length, how inevitably he'll find a file in the general alphabetical neighborhood of his new file which is irrelevant, old, or otherwise serving no purpose. "It feels good to pitch the content and recycle the file folder."
And he limits inventory in a very simple way.
Helped me...hope hit helps you as well.
Keep learning.
8 comments:
I think many could learn something by trying to limit their space for storage. It would be great to apply this thinking to electronic files as well. I know many email services that limit space forcing you to do something with your emails when there are too many.
Inventory control through 5S. The key, I think, is the regularity of the process. We have to continually look for opportunities for WIP reduction and 5S.
It seems that lean trainingis useful in each and every feild whether it is at workplace or at home.
Great post you got here. I'd like to read something more concerning this theme. Thnx for sharing that info.
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Great Post.
Great Post, The demands of the service sector businesses are such that the maintenance of services, equipment and the inventory involved are becoming business critical.
Well I guess there are a lot of people who works a lot and earn to less, but the world seems to be on that way, there's no chance for those people no matter how you want to do something, bussnies are bussniess and that's it.
Thanks
Great post! The 'Simple Inventory Control Example' is an excellent resource for anyone looking to streamline their inventory management.
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