As you stare across the piles or paper and clutter that marks your workspace in the office, you get a feeling of resigned frustration. You know that this collection of organized chaos cannot possible be the best way to work, but it makes total sense to you. Others may see it as a disorganized mess, but you see a well organized system. Only you can decipher the code of chaos. Well, today is the day to make a change! Clear the minefield of chaos and restore order and discipline to that space you call a desk.

Using the 5S Tool to Restore Order

Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. To regain control over your workspace, it is the day to take action. Experts agree that the average worker has on average 36 hours of work in those mountains of clutter on the workspace. Those same workers spend about three hours a week searching’ the chaos for specific things they need to get the job done. What a waste!

Now it’s time to take charge and organize the chaos and clutter. We cannot think of a better tool to help you take control than the 5S Tool used with Lean Six Sigma methodology.

5S Tool

Sort – The first step is to go through all the clutter and determine what must be retained at the worksite. Only essential files, paperwork and documents are allowed to remain. When you find something that doesn’t belong, return it to the correct person or department or simply get rid of it.

Straighten – Now all you have left at the workspace are essentials. You must now give each of these a single, proper place. You’ve heard the saying, A place for everything, and everything in its place. That’s exactly what we’re talking about. Be creative and organized in establishing places for things so that returning an item to where it belongs is natural or easy.

Scrub – To help maintain the order you’ve created, thoroughly clean everything remaining at the workspace. The time and money spent on polishing or cleaning, will be returned manyfold in a more positive attitude and with greater productivity.

Standardize – Make things in your workspace consistent with files and organizers. Model your workspace after the most organized person in your work area. Find out how they organize and work to duplicate their system. If everyone does the process the same way, things will become significantly more efficient.

Sustain – This final step means to put a schedule and system in place for maintaining and refreshing the 5S’d workspace. It is your responsible to maintain and sustain.

The Dawn of a New Day

Your workspace is now clutter free, organized and streamlined. It is like a new day. You feel more refreshed and confident. You get things done quicker, with more accuracy. It feels great to come to work and you are proud of your space. Success is about habits and the 5S tool allows you to have a habit that is easy to practice. Now, let’s get to work!

Get your free download of the 5S tool here.

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Every organization handles change differently – there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. There are many steps involved, and if some of them are not handled correctly, the entire initiative can be undermined. Here are four such steps that are critical to change management.

1. Identify the Need for Change

Before starting the change management process, it is important to figure out what exactly needs to change. Doing this requires a thorough analysis of the organization’s current position and where it needs to be. This will reveal opportunities, allowing you to see if they’ll substantially impact the organization’s goals.

Once you determine that the change needs to happen, then it’s time to start planning the process. At this point, it would be prudent to take a data-driven and structured approach to achieving an effective change management process. One way to accomplish this is to set SMART goals. 

2. Prepare Everyone in the Organization for Change

All teams across the organization need to brace for change. Change brings an operational and cultural shift, and this can be met with heavy resistance if people aren’t prepared for it. A big part of this is ensuring that all employees understand why the change must happen.

Over time, people become accustomed to the status quo: the way things have always been done. Communicating the need for change to them and listening to their feedback will lead to greater buy-in. Everyone needs to feel like their part of the change management process. That way, they will be motivated to contribute rather than resist it.

3. Implement the Change

Change management won’t happen if it is not implemented. After the planning and preparation for the initiative, the real work begins. While it is just a matter of carrying out the steps outlined in the plan, splitting the steps into manageable chunks is much better. Doing this smoothens the transition, allowing employees to adapt to the change gradually. That way, the organization and its employees don’t bite off more than they can chew.

During implementation, it’s upper management’s job to keep morale at an all-time high. Even the best plans can run into roadblocks, and contingencies must be set in place to mitigate their impact on the project’s momentum (this should be handled in the planning stages). Transparency and communication should also be maintained so that everyone doesn’t lose sight of the goal at hand.

4. Sustain the Results

Even if the initial implementation was successful, many change managers don’t realize that the work has only begun. If the conscious effort is not made to standardize the procedures taken to achieve the results, the prior status quo can return. It takes time for change to become established, and standardization cements the change in the organization’s culture, making it hard for people to go back to the way things were.

Conclusion

Being asked to handle change management within an organization is no easy task. But by making sure that these four critical steps aren’t missed can lead to a greater chance of success. The project’s success can lay down the foundation that will ensure that future change management goes smoothly.

For more information on our Lean Six Sigma training classes and services, please visit 6sigma.com. 

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Making organization-wide change is not an easy feat. It is an involving process that requires many individual components within the organization to band together and function as a cohesive unit. That is why change management is often implemented to ensure that organization-wide cooperation is structured. Doing it this way minimizes the chance of failure.

The Biggest Reason Why Change Fails

Change is often disruptive. This means that if leadership does not have a way of handling people’s reactions, change will fail. After all, humans are the biggest reason why change efforts at organizational change fail.

A good way to avoid this is if communication and transparency are prioritized, ensuring that individuals and teams are aware of what is expected of them and how to achieve it. They should also be able to see the results of the change as it is being implemented bit by bit.

How to Implement Change Management

Change management has been proven to be a game-changer for organizations. However, it needs to be implemented the right way. Here is a brief overview of the steps organizations can take to successfully implement change management:

• Define change clearly and concisely
• Determine how the change will impact individuals and teams within the organization
• Develop a strategy for communicating the change
• Teach the necessary skills and knowledge required to implement the change
• Establish a support structure
• Monitor the change process

Importance of Change Management

When an organization recognizes the need to change, it means it wants to be more responsive to its external environment. If change management is implemented successfully, organizations can experience several benefits. With change management, organizations can:

• Increase their chances of implementing successful change
• Allocate the necessary resources required to implement the change
• Reduce the time and money required when implementing change
• Align the change with business strategy and values
• Help and support employees to ensure that they adapt to the change
• Increase morale and productivity
• Minimize any anxiety and stress employees may be experiencing because of the change
• Minimize any disruptions and risks the change might cause to business operations
• Become adept at handling the amount and frequency of change happening within
• Offset the negative impact of poorly managed change in the past
• Handle challenges in an efficient manner
• Implement changes that can make them successful and competitive
• Improve the way employees corporate and collaborate

Conclusion

Any organization that is serious about implementing change should consider change management. Many organizations have tried to handle change without it, only to waste resources and make employees adverse to change. With change management, all this can be avoided and change can be implemented that will put the organization in a stronger position than it was before.

Contact us if you have additional questions.

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Warehousing is the storage of goods intended for sale or distribution in a warehouse. However, it becomes more complex when this process comes face-to-face with the dynamic nature of business operations. These require a high level of efficiency to minimize costs and maximize profits.

Luckily, Six Sigma, with its set of management techniques, can be used to improve the warehousing process. If done correctly, applying Six Sigma’s data-driven and statistical tools and techniques to warehousing provides organizations with a way to eliminate issues permanently. Furthermore, it helps them discover performance measures that highlight areas of further improvement.

The goal of Six Sigma is to reduce the number of defects to 3.4 for every million opportunities. This is regarded as a sigma level of 6, which is the highest and most sustainable level of optimization. This increases the levels of customer satisfaction, as well as increases the organization’s bottom line.

Here are ways in which Six Sigma can benefit a warehousing operation.

Customer Loyalty

Customers not only notice but appreciate it when an organization has taken the time to improve efficiency and quality. In the end, customers become loyal since they have confidence in the organization’s ability to deliver high-quality and affordable products with little-to-no hassles.

Six Sigma provides an organization with the tools they need to convert customers into loyalists. When customers see that the warehouse is shipping products with speed and accuracy, they will be satisfied, especially if that is a pattern rather than a fluke. But if errors aren’t caught in the warehousing process and customers start receiving products with defects, they will quickly lose confidence in the organization’s ability to deliver. This will make them hesitant to place additional orders because it might feel like they’re gambling on quality. 

All errors need to be identified and corrected right – the hallmark of a Six Sigma organization. Six Sigma empowers the warehousing team with a comprehensive strategy for handling errors by eliminating them at the root so they never happen again. That way, the warehouse operation can focus on satisfying customers instead of resolving their complaints.

Transforms Organizational Culture

Six Sigma is about improving the entire culture of the organization. Everyone in the organization, from sales and finance to manufacturing and warehousing, knows what they need to make the organization more efficient. 

With clearly defined roles and milestones, it becomes easier to rally people behind the common goal. So not only will the warehouse team be able to work towards making their operation more efficient, but they will work with others to ensure the entire organization is efficient as well.

Reduces Costs

Satisfying customers is one of the major objectives of the warehousing team. And what better way is there to achieve this than to reach a sigma level of 6. By streamlining the warehousing process, on top of reducing or eliminating defects, the team can effectively reduce costs and transfer the savings to the customer.

Furthermore, keeping costs down also means that the organization can increase its bottom line. This means that shareholders will also be pleased and more willing to pour more resources into the warehousing process to make it more efficient.

Improves Quality

Naturally, when the warehouse manages to get rid of errors, quality will go up. Six Sigma provides teams with the necessary statistical tools to gather warehousing data. By analyzing the data, they can extract insights that can help them ensure that customers don’t get poor-quality products. 

The data that the warehouse team gathered can also be shared with other departments in the organization. This will help other teams throughout the organization improve their processes as well so they too can produce quality output and cut costs.

Conclusion

The Six Sigma methodology is a great tool for improving the warehousing process. In turn, this increases customer loyalty, reduces costs, and improves quality. Furthermore, since Six Sigma happens on the organizational level, everyone works together to make everything efficient.

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Lean manufacturing relies on many tools, and the 5S is one that is widely used. Basically, it optimizes the work environment and lays the foundation for continuous improvement. A 5S event just follows the 5s in a step-by-step fashing, meaning the entire event can be completed in a workweek (one day for each step).

Below are the steps involved in the 5S event, which are Sort, Straighten, Sweep, Standardize and Sustain.

1. Sort

Sorting is about categorizing all the items in the workplace into those that are needed and those that aren’t. The point is to remove anything that can be considered unnecessary clutter and make the workplace cleaner and more efficient. 

2. Straighten

Straightening involves making the workplace more organized by placing the needed items where they can be easily found. Those which are used frequently can be placed closer to the workstation to add another layer of organization. This will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to locate them, which speeds up productivity.

3. Sweep

Sweeping is about making the workplace cleaner. This means every workspace needs to be swept, mopped, and scrubbed. If safety signs have faded, they need to be repainted, so it is also about making the work area safer as well. In the long term, it is believed that the workers will be happier and more productive working in a cleaner and safer environment.

On top of that, everyone will know that it is their job to keep it clean. This will give birth to a new habit that will make cleanliness sustainable in the long run.

4. Standardize

Everything that contributed to the efficiency of the workplace needs to be standardized. Otherwise, all the hard work everyone put in will eventually be for naught. Any idea that went into improving the workplace needs to be documented and that documentation needs to be shared with everyone in the organization. There also needs to be consistency between standardized procedures so that everyone in the organization can work towards keeping things going for the long term regardless of department.

5. Sustain

For the results to be sustainable indefinitely, some key members of senior management need to get involved. They need to take charge of the process to ensure that people are maintaining all the improvements made to the workplace. This means 5S should be embedded in the organization’s management philosophy. And departments need to evaluate themselves on how well their employees are contributing towards the sustainability of the 5S initiatives.

There is a saying that old habits die hard, meaning people can easily return to former bad habits. There is a need to ensure that 5S initiatives are understood by every employee as an ongoing endeavor and considered as the organization’s culture moving forward.

Conclusion

An organized workplace is one that is safe and productive. A 5S event outlines the steps to get the workplace to be the epitome of efficiency. Furthermore, it sets in place procedures that will keep it that way for the foreseeable future. It is an event that any Lean-thinking organization should carry out.

For more information on our Lean Six Sigma courses or training services, please visit our class schedule at 6sigma.com.

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