First off I’d like to thank KCOE for this opportunity to submit this guest blog about 5S. My name is Fred Findley and I’ve been fortunate to experience KCOE and their amazing Operational Excellence System for the past year.

This brief blog is a story of how I took the information I learned from KCOE about 5S and applied it to my own personal (and sometimes cluttered) life. If after reading this blog you have any suggestions for me or my 5S system please comment below.

If you have questions about 5S or any other topic, please leave them below and the KCOE guys might just respond with a 30 Second Coaching update about 5S .

How I Learned About 5S

A few months ago I sat in on a KCOE session with one of their healthcare clients. On this particular day they were going over 5S and how it can be applied in a hospital setting. During this session I immediately started thinking about how I could use this tool at my own business and in my personal life.

My Personal 5S Problem

The same week I attended this KCOE session I had a reality check moment at home. I had just finished shopping at the store and while shopping I had picked up about $30 in bathroom items – tooth paste, hair gel, dental floss, etc.

As I went to put everything away in my bathroom I realized I had a small problem. I have a very small medicine cabinet that was already overloaded and the space underneath the sink was already cluttered with so many things. My first attempt to put the new items away was to take everything out from under the sink and try to shove everything (including the new stuff) back in.

When I pulled everything out I realized that I already had several tubes of tooth paste, two unopened bottles of hair gel, a never used container of dental floss, and other items matching things I just spent hard earned money on.  Not only did I just waste money on buying items I already had, but I wasted the entire trip to the store.

My 5S Solution

My 5S bins with bathroom products

At this point I had no choice but to put 5S into action. I bought a couple of plastic drawers and decided to sort and standardize everything. From now on I was going to keep one item in the bathroom and all duplicate items in labeled storage bins in a closet just outside my bathroom.

This would at least solve the problem of what had just occurred. Rather than running to the store when I ‘thought’ I was out of something I would now first check the storage bins to see if I had one in storage ready to go. This would solve the wasted travel and expense.

In the image to the left you’ll see a photo of my 5S bins labeled Shaving, Eyes, Face, and Mouth. I also have another bin not in the photo with hair care items.

5S Saved My Day

This morning I realized I was out of tooth paste. How could I go to work with smelly breath. I was already running late and didn’t have time to run to the store. I went and checked my bins labeled ‘Mouth’ and sure enough I had tooth paste ready to go!

Would you want to learn more about tools like 5S for your company or personal life?

There are so many great ways to learn from the experts at KCOE. Not only can you follow their blog, you can also stay on top things by joining their facebook page and /or twitter pages.

If you want to get hands on and meet the KCOE team as well as other individuals just like yourself, consider joining their KCOE Institute or going to their annual North American Summit for Operational Excellence.

If you have questions or comments about 5s or any other topics be sure to leave your comments below.