My 5S Corner

Ideas@Work: Tapping Employee Ideas for higher Productivity

2015-08-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

My book on Staff Suggestions Systems Ideas@Work: Tapping Employee Ideas for Higher Productivity (165 pages, 6” x 9”, perfect bound) is now available in Singapore and Malaysia.

PRICE:

S$18 (additional S$2 for postage in Singapore)

HOW TO PURCHASE

If you are from SINGAPORE, you can purchase directly from:

Select Books
19 Tanglin Road #03-15
Tanglin Shopping Centre
Singapore 247909
Telephone: 6732 1515
http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/

Clementi Book Store
450 Clementi Ave 3, #01-297 (Clementi Central)
Singapore 120450

Alternatively, you can email your order to me at:

cslam@hoshin.com.sg stating clearly your name and mailing address, and contact number.

Payment can be made via cheque or via: Paypal or Credit Card.

Cheque payable to Hoshin Consulting should be mailed to this address:

Hoshin Consulting
23 Lily Avenue
Singapore 277770

The book(s) will be sent to you within 1 week of receipt of payment.

If you are in MALAYSIA, you can make your purchase from TIJ Consultants Sdn Bhd. Further details are found here.

SYNOPSIS

It’s been almost a quarter of a century since the publication of Masaaki Imai’s bestseller, Kaizen, The Key to Japan’s Competitive Edge, and still few companies outside Japan fully understand how to make the suggestion system work. Many companies that embarked on a staff suggestion system have encountered problems such as low participation, poor quality of suggestions and lack of support from the managers.

In this book, Lam Chun See, a management consultant with more than twenty years of consulting experience in Japanese productivity systems will help you to understand the root causes of these problems and how to overcome them. Written for managers, this book will teach you:

 How to design, manage and promote the staff suggestion system

 How to encourage and empower your subordinates to make more and better quality suggestions

 How to guide your subordinates in the correct technique of writing suggestions

This book is a must-read for all managers even if your company does not have a formal staff suggestion system.

Related articles

1) More about this book

3) Contents of the book Ideas@work

Let’s bring back Operation Broomstick

2011-07-05T02:04:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, a Canadian visitor wrote a letter to the Straits Times Forum. Unlike this other Canadian visitor, Mr James Cruikshank did not mince his words in describing what a filthy city we have become. Several other readers wrote expressing their agreement with his views.

Many years ago we used to have a Keep Singapore Clean Campaign. Later we upgraded it to the Keep Singapore Clean and Green Movement. Recently we further upgraded (that’s Singapore for you, we believe in continuous upgrading) that to the Keep Singapore Beautiful Movement.

As for me, I say, let’s bring back Operation Broomstick. What’s the point in trying to be green when you cannot even be clean? And if you are dirty, there no way you can be beautiful, right?

What is Operation Broomstick?

According to the People’s Association’s publication, Citizens, Conversations & Collaborations: Chronicles of the Citizens’ Consultative Committee:

“The Housing and Development Board launches Operation Broomstick in 1968 to clear housing estates of litter and rubbish, and CCC leaders are there to help get residents to take an active part in the massive nationwide operation – right down to elderly women with their own brooms.”

The second photo shows Health Minister Chua Sian Chin at MacPherson Estate

"PM Lee personally leads the way in a mass drive to spring-clean the city for the National Loyalty Week in 1959."

Don’t waste just because it’s free

2010-12-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

Wasted Today

I am one of those lucky Singaporeans who get not one, but two free newspapers delivered to his doorstep practically every day. From Monday to Friday, I get My Paper; and from Monday to Saturday, I get Today. In addition, I subscribe to the Straits Times.

It was raining this morning (Saturday) and as usual our free copy of Today was totally ruined by the rain as the delivery man didn’t bother to throw it further into our driveway. On the other hand, our paid copy of the Straits Times was nice and dry.

So why the difference? I can only surmise that the difference lay in the attitudes of the delivery men. In the case of the Straits Times, the vendor knows that if the newspaper was damaged by the rain, we would complain and he would have to make another trip and compensate us. In the case of the Today, he probably thinks; “Ah .. it’s free, so these people won’t dare to complain” .... and he is right.

Photo above - my neighbour's newspapers; below - ours.

Wasted toilet paper

The other day I had to use the public toilet in a shopping centre in the Bukit Timah area. To my horror, I saw that somebody had removed the entire roll of toilet paper – and these are the commercial rolls which are much bigger than the normal ones we used at home – and dumped them on the cistern. When I brought it to the attention of the toilet attendant/cleaner, he told me this was a common occurrence. “What to do? Free one; not their own money; so anyhow waste lor!”.

Sigh. How depressing to hear this. But never mind. Let me cheer you up with a joke.

Early in my career, I worked as an industrial engineer in Philips. We had many Dutch expatriates; but my boss was a Belgian. It was really fun to attend social functions with these people because they liked to trade insults/jokes about each other's country. I remember this joke told by my Belgian boss. He said; “If you drove from Belgium into Holland, how would you know that you have crossed the border? Well you can easily tell by the rolls of toilet paper hanging out to dry in the backyard. They use it at least twice, you know!”

Related post.

Sarawak Regional 5S Convention

2010-11-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, 15 November 2010, I was in Kuching to deliver a paper at the Sarawak Regional 5S Convention (Konvensyen 5S Wilayah Sarawak). It was an eye-opener for me because even though we’ve had 5S in Singapore since 1986, we never organised a 5S convention. The biggest 5S event in Singapore as far as I can remember was the award-presentation ceremony for the Inter-company 5S Competition in 1989.

Organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (Sarawak Office), this Regional 5S Convention drew a huge crowd of more than 250 participants. I should congratulation the MPC for having done such a great job in promoting 5S in Sarawak. The highlights of this convention were:

1) 5S Song by Sedidik Sdn Bhd (a Childcare Centre)
2) Performance by Sekolah Seni Kuching
3) Presentation of 5S Certificates to ‘5S-certified’ companies
4) My paper on “Issues of Sustaining 5S practices”
5) Presentation by Hospital Tenom, Sabah – “Enhancing excellenct service delivery through 5S practices”
6) Presentation by Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara – “Developing, sustaining and impact of Quality Environment Practices”
7) Presentation by Sarawak Land and Survey – “Organisational transformation through 5S practices”

5S Song by SeDidik Sdn Bhd

5S Dance by Sekolah Seni Kuching

Besides presentations by the four speakers, there was an exhibition by a number of 5S-certified organisations including an interesting one by Sedidik Sdn Bhd (a Childcare Centre). Personally I am very impressed by the work that MPC has done to promote 5S and the commitment shown by the award-winning organizations. Seeing the efforts and results of these companies, I think the MPC consultants have done a great job is teaching and guiding them in the implementation of 5S

They have correctly identified sustenance as a key challenge and I hope my paper has contributed a little to this very difficult topic. The key thrust of my speech was that 5S is above all a management issue and not a worker programme as many organizations mistakenly thought. As such the focus should always be on how to manage the programme in a structured ongoing manner, and I recommended that they adopt the PDCA methodology. Through a yearly repetition of the PDCA cycle, an organisation can assess its current situation, set appropriate goals, develop a good plan which is then implemented thoroughly and then the situation systematically monitored, reviewed and corrected if necessary. And such a PDCA cycle should be carried out at different levels of the organisation in an integrated manner - just like the way TQM companies implement Policy Deployment or Hoshin Kanri.

I also cautioned them that the one area that they must pay close attention to is the middle management. On there shoulders lie the heavy burden of leading the 5S movement at the operational level. They are also the ones most pressured for time. In many organisations, this turn out to be the weakest link.

As a result of seeing the huge efforts put in by the participating companies, I am alerted to one other danger. Fatigue or overload can cause the leaders at the front line to grow weary or even apprehensive of 5S activities. I have seen this happen in many organisations here in Singapore with respect to the Quality Circle movement. Still, with the PDCA approach, the management can look out for and manage this problem. As the 5S movement matures, emphasis should shift from ‘song-and-dance’ type promotion to incorporating 5S into the daily operational processes; in other words, Standardization.

Below are photos of some of the exhiibits

Lessons on Productivity from a humble bricklayer

2010-05-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

Frank Gilbreth (1868-1924) began life as a humble bricklayer and rose to become the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. (I guess in those days, they did not have an equivalent society for Industrial Engineers yet).

As an apprentice, he learnt his trade from a master bricklayer. Like Bruce Lee, he was not content to simply learn and apply. He observed and asked questions. He noticed that the traditional method of laying bricks had many unproductive movements. He also noticed that different bricklayers employed different methods.

Through careful study and applying an innovative spirit, he was able to eliminate many wasteful motions and simplify the method. This humble bricklayer taught the world a new discipline called Motion Study.

All the work that we do with our two hands can be broken down into basic movements called ‘motions’. For example, to pick up your pen to begin writing, you need to Reach, Grasp, Move, Position etc. Gilbreth named these motions, ‘Therbligs’, the reverse spelling of his name except for the last two letters. By careful examination of the work process, one can always improve the work method by Eliminating, Rearranging, Combining and Simplifying the motions. Subsequently, people like Ralph Barnes built on the work of Frank Gilbreth and came up with the Principles of Motion Economy. Such principles lay the foundation of Work Study and modern Industrial Engineering.

Like Bruce Lee, Frank Gilbreth exhibited the quality of a ‘kaizen mind’. He was:

a) Not satisfied with the status quo,
b) Always questioning existing methods of doing things,
c) Always looking for better ways of doing things,
d) Open to new ideas no matter where they came from,
e) Constantly coming up with new ideas and innovations.

Frank Gilbreth married a lady called Lillian; a psychologist. Together, the engineer-psychologist partnership gave the world many innovations. They had twelve children, six boys and six girls. When asked why he had so many children, Frank often replied, “Oh, they come cheaper by the dozen”. Two of their children wrote a book titled, Cheaper By The Dozen. They documented the ways his father applied the IE methods to manage their home. This book was made into a funny (black and white) movie which I saw many years ago.

An example of reduced motions

Nowadays, when we Singaporeans traveled in a bus, we would use an Ezlink card to tap on the card reader when we boarded the bus. It took only one simple ‘motion’. Compared to the previous stored value card of a few years ago, it was a significant improvement. You may say that the saving is only a couple of seconds; but applied to the line of passengers boarding a bus during peak hours, multiplied by the number of stations along the route and the thousands of trips each day, the time saving for the country as a whole is tremendous, don’t you think?

Productivity and Bruce Lee

2010-04-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched the final episode of the tv series, The Legend of Bruce Lee, a rather detailed biopic of the late kungfu superstar. His character and philosophy of life reminded me somewhat of the definition of productivity that I told you about (here) some time ago; namely:

Productivity is, above all, an attitude of mind. It seeks to continually improve what already exists. It is based on a conviction that one can do things better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today.

(From the report of the Rome Conference - European Productivity Agency, 1958).

If I asked you for one word to describe Bruce Lee’s fighting style, the words ‘fast’ or ‘speed’ will probably come to mind. But it wasn’t just the speed of his movements that made him such an outstanding martial artist. Apparently he went to great lengths to study the movements of the various fighting styles including his own original Wing Chun style. He meticulously refined these movements, cutting away the wasteful “motions”, as what we would call them in Industrial Engineering jargon. He even tried to combine a block simultaneously with a counter-attack.

People thought he was incredibly arrogant when he posted a sign outside his martial arts school saying that he would accept a challenge from anyone, anytime, any place. Actually his primary motive was to ‘upgrade’ and learn from his opponents. And after each encounter he would befriend his opponent and was totally open to share the secrets of his own craft.

Thus we see that this man was:

a) Never satisfied with the status quo.
b) Always questioning existing methods of doing things.
c) Always looking for better ways of doing things.
d) Open to new ideas no matter where they came from.

e) Constantly coming up with new ideas and innovations.

Such an attitude is central to the meaning of productivity and we would do well to learn from him. But one aspect of his character which we want to avoid is his stubbornness. He refused to accept advice from his loved ones to seek medical attention even when it became obvious that he had a serious health problem. The rest as they say, is history.

Contents of my book Ideas@work

2010-03-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

These are the contents of my book, Ideas@work.

Introduction
Acknowledgements

Part 1: Managing the Staff Suggestion Scheme
Chapter 1: What is a Staff Suggestion Scheme?
Chapter 2: The Role of the Suggestion Scheme Committee
Chapter 3: The Role of managers and supervisors
Chapter 4: The Role of the suggester
Summary of Part 1

Part 2: The 4 stages of making a suggestion
Chapter 5: Problem finding - How to Spot opportunities for Improvement
Chapter 6: Fact finding - How to Investigate Problems
Chapter 7: Idea finding - How to Get Ideas
Chapter 8: Solution finding - How to Write Suggestions
Summary of Part 2

List of Japanese terms used in this book
References and further reading
Index
About the author

My first published book – ideas@work

2010-01-29T21:57:00.000-08:00

I have just published my first book; Ideas@work. It is about how to manage the suggestions programme or what is more popularly known here in Singapore as the Staff Suggestion Scheme or SSS.

To explain what this book is about, its aims and the readers it is targeted at; I have reproduced below, word-for-word, the Introduction I wrote in this book. Briefly this is what it says;

This book is mainly, but not exclusively, for managers in companies that already have, or wish to introduce the SSS. This would include most companies in Singapore that want to vie for the Singapore Quality Class or Singapore Quality Award because Employee Involvement is one of the key areas that they will be assessed on.

There are three main avenues that such companies should adopt to systematically involve their employees in the total quality process; Quality Circles, 5S and SSS. Of these three, the most difficult in my opinion is the SSS. Hence I have decided to write about SSS instead of 5S which I have more experience with. The other reason is that there are not many good books on SSS in the market which focus on the heart of the problems that companies face and come up with a comprehensive yet simple model to address them. I have also tried to craft my book in a style that will make it an easy read for busy executives.

Initially I published my book at the online book store, Lulu.com. However, the performance has been quite dismal and I have decided to republish at a later date as an ebook. Meantime, if you are in Singapore and Malaysia; you can still purchase the print copy at S$18. Details at the side bar.

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INTRODUCTION

My first encounter with the Staff Suggestion Scheme was when I was working as an industrial engineer in Philips Singapore Pte Ltd. That was around 1980. One day, I saw a big exercise book that the production manager had placed at the front of one of the assembly lines. He asked his staff to write down their suggestions for improving the efficiency of that line. As the IE responsible for that line, I was curious to hear the feedback from the production operators. Thus I eagerly checked that book every morning; but to my disappointment, I did not see a single suggestion until several days later. Finally somebody wrote a ‘suggestion’ complaining that the packing area at the end of the line was very hot and stuffy. She suggested that fans be installed in that area. Since then, I have come to discover just how difficult it was to solicit ideas and suggestions from the rank-and-file workers.

In 1984, I left my job in Philips to join the National Productivity Board as a trainer and consultant. I had read in the newspapers that the National Productivity Board was sending many of its consultants to Japan to undergo training in the area of productivity management and I was very eager be included in such a program. In September 1985, I finally got my chance to receive such training when I was sent for the three-and-a-half month Productivity Development Project (PDP) Fellowship program in Japan. During that trip, I learnt a lot about how the Japanese were able to adapt the management concepts which they had learnt from the Americans, and applied them successfully in the workplace; even more effectively than their American teachers, in fact. I had the precious opportunity to visit many outstanding Japanese companies like Canon, Nipon Kokan Steel and Komatsu. I also experienced a two-week attachment in Aisin Seiki which was a subsidiary of the Toyota group.

My learning journey on Japanese productivity techniques continued when I returned to Singapore. Over the next seven years, I worked alongside many Japanese advisors who had been sent by the Japan Productivity Center to train us. Some of them, the so-called Long-term Experts (or LTEs) were stationed in NPB Singapore for periods of two or more years. Two of the experts that I worked with were Mr Hajime Suzuki and Mr Kazuo Tsuchiya. I learned a lot about Japanese management concepts and techniques from them.

Besides the LTEs, the Japan Productivity Center also dispatched Short-term Experts (or STEs) to Singapore for short assignments of about two to three weeks each time. One of them was a gentleman by the name of Motomu Baba who made several trips to Singapore. Baba-san, as we called him specialized in TQC, or Total Quality Control. I was his main ‘counterpart’ and learned much about what is today called TQM (Total Quality Management) from him. At the same time, I continued my learning journey through reading productivity books written by Japanese experts. In 1989, I had another chance to undergo training in Japan. This time, it was a month-long program on TQC organized by the Asian Productivity Organization or APO. It was led by TQC expert, Dr Noriaki Kano.

One thing I have learnt about the Japanese approach to productivity is that they placed very strong emphasis on Kaizen, or continuous improvement through Employee Involvement. (I trust that by now, there is no need for me to explain what is Kaizen). For example, during our plant visits, the Japanese hosts would invariably arrange a session whereby workers from the shopfloor would make presentations to us about their kaizen projects. Such Japanese companies usually have in place very structured ‘kaizen’ programs to encourage and empower their employees to contribute ideas to improve their own workplace. Three such programs are:

(i) 5S Good Housekeeping and Workplace Organization
(ii) Quality Control Circles, and
(iii) Staff Suggestion Schemes

In 1992, I left the National Productivity Board and set up my own consulting practice. Since then, I have undertaken numerous training and consulting assignments for companies in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to help them to implement such ‘total employee involvement’ programs. My experience so far is that, of these three, the staff suggestion scheme is the most difficult. In my work as a management consultant, I have seen many companies that claim to have a staff suggestion scheme. On closer look, most of them were struggling to sustain it. More often than not, their suggestion boxes were empty or filled with sweet wrappers and sometimes, even cigarette butts. Other than Japanese companies, I have rarely seen any organization achieve significant success in the staff suggestion scheme. Even the outstanding organizations that have won the coveted Singapore Quality Award had to struggle to keep their suggestion schemes alive.

The root cause of this problem is the lack of understanding. It is indeed sad that almost one quarter of a century after the publication of Masaaki Imai’s book Kaizen, The Key to Japan’s Competitive Edge, very few companies have fully understood what Imai tried to teach. The staff suggestion scheme is a good example. In his book, Imai devoted a significant portion to describe how Japanese companies successfully harnessed the creative ideas of their staff through the suggestion system. Yet how many non-Japanese companies have successfully implemented the staff suggestion scheme?

Take for example this large government-related company in the defense industry in Singapore that I came across a few years ago. This company has been rated an ‘excellent’ company having won the Singapore Quality Award, our equivalent of America’s Malcolm Baldridge Award and Japan’s Deming Prize. A member of their suggestion scheme committee admitted that they had been finding it tougher and tougher to achieve the target of five suggestions per employee per year. As such they intended to reduce the target in the following year. “We want to go for quality rather than quantity”, he concluded.

I was very disappointed to hear that because that statement clearly showed that he did not understand what is meant by quality of suggestions and or what the suggestion scheme is all about. By quality, he probably meant suggestions that could bring about big tangible benefits. He did not understand that any employee involvement program that did not garner significant participation from the staff is a failure. When it comes to staff suggestions, numbers is the name of the game. It is not a zero-sum game. Both quality and quantity matter in the suggestion scheme; and if properly managed both should go up at the same time.

Anyway, I do not blame this manager. His organization, like many others had probably embarked on the suggestion scheme simply because the top management had instructed him and his colleagues to do so. Maybe the big boss had just attended a seminar where he heard highly inspiring ‘success stories’ about how other companies had benefited from a suggestion scheme. He then decided to introduce it in the company without an in-depth understanding.

Another possible scenario is that they wanted to vie for the Singapore Quality Award and one of the key factors to be evaluated is Employee Involvement. They needed to be seen to have an active staff suggestion scheme to stand any chance of winning the award.

Hence, you can see that in such an environment, the suggestion scheme simply will not last. Even if it did, the staff running it would be very demoralized.
And that is the whole purpose of this book – to help you understand what is a staff suggestion scheme and how to manage it. For a staff suggestion scheme to function effectively, three groups of people in the organization must fully understand their roles;

· The suggestion scheme committee which design and manage the scheme,
· The line managers who lead the staff who actually make the suggestions,
· The rank-and-file workers themselves; the so-called ‘suggesters’.

This book is written for the first two groups - the suggestion scheme committee members and the line managers.

Besides understanding their role, the suggestion committee must also know how to set up an effective system. Thus, I will be explaining the various subsystems that make up the company’s staff suggestion scheme.

As for the second group, the line managers, my aim is to help them to see how important their role is; a role that is often not fully understood. On their shoulders lies the main responsibility of promoting the staff suggestion scheme in their own departments or sections. They must encourage, guide and empower their subordinates to come up with more and better quality suggestions. They must help them (the staff) to understand their role in the staff suggestion scheme. Thus, this book will also address, indirectly, the needs of the last group of people mentioned above, namely the rank-and-file workers who actually contribute the suggestions.

This book is divided into two main sections. Part 1 covers the concept of the staff suggestion scheme and the roles of the three groups of people mentioned above. In Part 2, I will introduce a simple methodology that the staff can use when he is making a suggestion.

It is my desire that after reading this book, you will be able to help your company to better manage the staff suggestion scheme whether in the role of a suggestion scheme committee member or in the role of a line manager. As a manager, I hope you will understand that empowering your staff to make suggestions is part and parcel of your job. When you succeed in this role, you would have become a more effective leader and manager. I wish you every success.

Lam Chun See

Please do not add anymore S’s

2010-01-25T00:26:00.000-08:00

In recent years, some companies and consultants have come up with their own versions of the 5S model by adding an additional S to make it 6S. Most commonly, the 6th S stood for Safety. Their aim is to place special emphasis on Safety. I have even come across one company that adopted 7S. Besides Safety, the additional S came from a Japanese word beginning with S. I am sorry I cannot recall the Japanese word, but I think the meaning had to do with work morale. I personally think it is not a good idea to add anymore S’s to the original 5S model.

1. The 5S Model is already a fairly well-known and universally accepted management concept. The term and its meaning too have become quite standardized. Hence, to come up with something like 6S will only serve to confuse the public.

2. Often the 6th S, such as Safety, does not fit logically into the 5S meaning. Each S in the 5S model denotes a set of actions or approach. Hence Seiri is Clearing; to sort and discard unnecessary items, Seiton is Organizing; to arrange necessary items systematically and so on. The result of these actions is better safety, less waste etc which further leads to lower cost and higher profitability. Safety being a noun simply does not fit into the set; unless these organizations are prepared to re-define the each of the 5 Ss in terms of nouns such as clutter, orderliness, cleanliness etc.

3. In the case of Safety, it is superfluous because it is already addressed the other 5S steps; especially Seiton, and specifically Visual Control (see example below). Safety is the result of 5S not an additional ingredient in the 5S dish. In Chinese we say don’t draw a snake and add legs to it – 画蛇添足。

Instead of trying to modify the conventional 5S model, I think companies should focus their energies on implementing the 5S more effectively. Sometimes companies having practiced the 5S for a couple of years become complacent and think that they ‘have arrived’ and try to expand the 5S movement by adopting 6S. The workers will surely be able to see that they have added nothing new. Worse still, they will conclude as I do, that the managers do not really understand what is 5S in the first place.

Visual control for safety example (1)

2009-12-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

One of the most common applications for visual control is in the area of safety; specifically, to highlight a hazard. A common example is seen in the photo below. These steps are found outside the Tiong Bahru MRT station. Because of the jagged shape of the steps, there is a danger that people in a hurry may trip over them. Hence the edge of the steps are painted in bright yellow colour to highlight the unsafe condition.

However such visual controls devices are not very useful if they are not well-maintained. The other day, I was at the Ghim Moh wet market when I saw a delivery man trip over this low ledge in the floor. Fortunately, the man who was carrying some goods did not fall down. As you can see from the photos below, the paint on the floor has faded. The visual control device has lost its effectiveness.

You may say that this is a very minor problem. But, one principle we often emphazise when it comes to 5S and Safety is that it is always the small things that count. Many serious accidents are caused by minor shortcomings the workplace. If you are not convinced, ask this gentleman.

Even schools need 5S

2009-11-10T02:14:00.000-08:00

My friend Peh has posted an article in his blog about 5S here. It is written in Chinese but the gist of it is this:

"Japan is a developed country. Visitors Japan are impressed by their cleanliness, discipline and first class service. They excel in many areas especially in the management of 5S.

In contrast, here in Singapore, 5S is not well regarded. Bad housekeeping practices can be seen everywhere including our educational institutions. If our kids are regularly exposed to such messy surroundings in school, when they grow up and join society, they will adopt the same standards."

In contrast Japanese students are indoctrinated with good 5S disciplines in schools. Read about it here.

What a waste (2) – Ice cubes

2009-08-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

I notice that in Singapore, whenever we order a cold drink at a hawker centre or food court, it’s a common practice to get much more ice cubes than we really need. Much of this ice is simply discarded later. Overall, this results in tremendous amount waste of energy and water for our country; not just to produce the ice, but to transport it and preserve it.

With the ongoing concern for the environment and efforts to go ‘green’; I think we can do something to reduce this wastage. For example:

1) Launch a campaign to persuade Singaporeans to take their drinks without ice. Often when we order canned drinks, they already come chilled anyway. Why not save yourself 10 cents and help save the earth?

2) Launch a campaign to educate drink stalls to serve less ice. I suspect that in some cases, such as fruit juices, they give you more ice so that they can cut down on the amount of juice they serve.

3) Come up with a practical way to recycle the ice cubes. Of course I do not mean to re-use the ice cubes for drinks. One area I can think of is to re-sell it to the fish mongers at nearby wet markets who require large amounts of crushed ice. Here’s how. Every food court and hawker centre should be equipped with a large ice box. The cleaners should rinse the leftover ice cubes and store them in the ice box. The next morning, if it is a hawker centre next to a wet market, the fish mongers can help themselves to the ice. Maybe they can be charged a nominal fee.

In fact, last month I put forward this suggestion to Reach. They relayed it to the relevant ministry which then gave me an acknowledgement and a promise to look into it. It’s been more than a month and I have not heard again from them. I doubt I will ever hear from them again :(

Tomorrow will be better than Today

2009-07-13T03:44:00.000-07:00

In 1988, when I was working as a (quite young) management consultant with the National Productivity Board (NPB), I was assigned to Tat Seng Paper Containers Pte Ltd as a part-time productivity manager. At that time, NPB had a scheme called Promis. Promis stood for Productivity Manager in SME, a term coined by our then chairman, Mr Mah Bow Tan. The idea was to let promising SMEs engage the services of a productivity manager even though they were too small to afford such a full-time staff. I think I spent two days a week there for about a year.

Anyway, when I was there, the first thing I did was to organize a series of productivity talks for all the employees. The four topics that I chose were:

a) What is Productivity?
b) The importance of Good Housekeeping
c) Cost Reduction through Reduction of Waste
d) Quality Awareness

Together with the productivity committee, we then launched a company-wide productivity movement called 3Ps. 3Ps stood for Productivity Promotion Through Participation. (通过参于活动提高生产力)

(By now you must be quite amused at how fond we government officials were of using acronyms. Sorry, you’ll have to bear with it because there’s more to come.

Haha.)

From the April 1988 edition of Productivity Digest

The 3Ps programme I introduced was further made up of 3 initiatives (each beginning with the letter S).

These were:

a) The 5S programme
b) Safety promotion
c) Staff Suggestion Scheme (SSS)

To cut a long story short, we decided to launch our 3Ps programme with a Big Clean Up. We chose a Saturday which was just before the Chinese New Year to do this. The GM, Mr S M Loh, myself and our Japanese advisor, Mr Suzuki made short speeches. This was followed by some refreshments and the Big Clean Up. Everybody, including the GM rolled up their sleeves to clean up the factory.

Whilst the cleaning action was going on, we played a song over the public address system that I had specially chosen for that occasion.

Yes, you’ve guessed it. The song was 明天会更好 (Tomorrow will be better)

Now here is a quiz question for you. Why did I choose this song?

Answer.

(From the report of the Rome Conference - European Productivity Agency, 1958).

Bring 5S with you wherever you go

2009-05-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

When I conduct 5S training, I like to end my session by reminding my trainees that they should bring 5S wherever they go. This is another way of saying that they should not apply 5S only in their workplace but other places as well; such as in public places, roads, car parks and of course the home.

Let’s take public places for example. If you take a good look around, you will find many examples of inconsiderate behaviour such as littering, inconsiderate parking of vehicles as so on. In fact, a number of blogs have surfaced highlighting such “Bad 5S” as I like to call them. Here are 2 such blogs by Stompoli that I read frequently:

1) Be heard, be seen
2) Irresponsible motorists in Singapore

Recently, I too came across a couple of such situations that I would like to share with you here:

This photo was taken along Pandan Loop sometime in November last year.

This one was taken just last week in Tagore Lane.

What a waste (1) – Lost in car park

2009-01-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I visited a friend who lived in Edgefield Plains. I had a rather frustrating experience trying to park my car in the multi-storey car park at Block 107.

When I first turned into the car park, I proceeded to drive to the upper floors to look for the visitors’ lots. The car park was very long, and when I finally reached the end of the 4th level, I discovered that there was no ramp to go up to the next level; and thus far all the parking lots were marked red, meaning they were reserved for residents. Thinking that I must have overshot the ramp, I went down to the 3rd level (it was a ‘one-way street’ type car park), and then went up to the 4th level again. As it turned out, the 4th level was the uppermost level. But still I did not see any white parking lots.

By that time, I was getting quite agitated and panicky as I was going to be late. Thinking that perhaps the visitors’ car park was in another building, or in some open area, I impatiently descended; round and round, floor after floor – did I mention that it was a very long car park?

I went out to the main road, drove around the block and found another entrance with a sign pointing to a multi-storey car park. When I finally found the car park, I realized that it was the same car park, but this was different entrance. Not knowing what else to do, I drove in and then I finally saw it - a sign saying that the visitors’ car park is in Level B1 in the basement. When I finally arrived at my friend’s home, I found out that practically every other visitor had the same frustrating encounter; and to my relief that, several guests arrived even later than me.

This is a classic example of poor design which did not take into consideration the basic principle of population stereotypes. In brief, Population Stereotype is “A seemingly arbitrary choice, or particular option, that is chosen by a large proportion of a given population” (full definition here). For example; look at the tap in this photo. In Singapore, when we want to turn the tap off, or reduce the flow, we would push the lever down. However, in Jakarta, I discovered that their taps are designed to work in the opposite direction. On a number of occasions, I wet my shirt when I tried to turn off the tap in a hurry. It took me a few days to get accustomed to their taps; but by then it was time to return to Singapore.

When you design a system that does not conform to the population stereotype of your intended users, the chance of human errors and accidents will increase.

Coming back to our car park; in Singapore, the vast majority of multi-storey car parks in HDB estates are designed with the visitors’ lots in the upper levels and painted with white paint, whereas the residents’ lots are in the lower levels and painted red in colour. In this particular case, the situation was made worse by the poor signage. My friends and I all did not see the sign telling us to go to Level B1.

This brings me to a subject related to 5S which is Visual Control. Visual controls have a few basic functions; such as:

1) To provide information (e.g. Male/Female toilet signs, warning signs etc)
2) To give instructions especially operating instructions
3) To simplify the task
4) To alert the user to an abnormal situation; e.g. the Empty warning light in your car’s fuel gauge.

Still on the subject of car parks, have you ever been in a car park where you had to go round and round to look for an empty lot? Often you, the driver, would ask your passengers to help you to look out for them. Sometimes, after going 1 full round, you realize that that level is full and you had to go to the next level and repeat the whole exercise. This, you will recall from my previous post, is called Muda or waste.

The good news is that, many car parks in Singapore have introduced a very user-friendly system of visual control. I have seen it in operation at Vivocity and Funan Centre. At the entrance to the car park, there is a prominent sign board indicating how many lots are available on each level. It helps you to decide immediately which level you should go to. At the car park itself, there are green and red lights to indicate if the parking lot is empty or taken. This is really helpful and saves time. In fact the relevant authorities have gone one step further. At strategic locations in the city, they have displays telling motorists the number of parking lots available in the major buildings.

I hope this article has helped you to appreciate the importance of 5S visual control systems. If you think of, or come across good examples of the creative use of visual controls, do share them with readers of this blog. Here’s another example from my friend Mr Peh’s blog.

Thank you.

5S and 3Mu (Waste)

2008-12-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Like blogger Stomponli, I get quite put off by thick catalogues, brochures and other junk mail which I have absolutely no need for. For example, I recently received 2 brochures together with the notification from LTA (Land Transport Authority) to renew my car road tax. They were about the new seat belt requirements for school buses. As my children are all fairly grown-up, the youngest being in junior college, I really had no use for the information in these booklets; and so I did what any 5S-minded individual would do; I promptly ‘Seiri-ed’ (discarded) them. Thankfully they weren’t as thick as those beautiful, glossy magazines from Ikea and Sony.

It then occurred to me that my action incurred considerable waste. Just think of the resources that went into producing and delivering the brochures to me. And more resources will be needed to dispose off or recycle them. Now multiply that by the thousands who are like me.

One reason why 5S is so popular is that it can be used to reduce or eliminate waste in many situations. But the waste we deal with in 5S is a bit different from that for the LTA booklets. In our case, the waste is not in the form of physical waste of energy or materials. Rather, it refers to wasteful activities that do not add value to the final product or service. This video clip illustrates what I am talking about.

With proper 5S, the person in this video would not need to waste time searching for and accessing the item he wanted. Yes, it’s only a few seconds but it is still waste. Furthermore, it causes some frustration to the workers.

The Japanese have an interesting way of classifying this type of waste. They call it Muri, Mura and Muda; or 3 Mu for short.

1) Muri means Irrationality or Strain. It means; “Doing that which cannot be done”. It usually refers to tasks that are very difficult or impossible to do; such as maintaining prolonged periods of vigilance, or having to remember a lot of things, or straining to read small words or symbols in dim lighting conditions?

2) Mura means Inconsistency. It means; “Not doing that which should be done”. It usually refers to situations where things that are not running as they should; such as when there are systems but people do not follow. One example is the yellow boxes at road junctions where cars are not supposed to stop in. Another example is the people who rush into MRT trains the moment the doors open and not giving the passengers a chance to alight. Their actions slow down the entire process and results in waste.

3) Muda simply means Waste. It refers to activities that do not help or add value, e.g. waiting/delay, rework, repair, etc. Muda is often the result of Muri and Mura.

I have read a Chinese 5S book which translates the 3 Mu’s as, 三不 or, 不合理，不均衡，and 不精简。

The 3 Mu’s are all around us; in our workplaces, homes, roads, public places etc. In any place where there is human activity, you will find them. I believe that if more people are conscious of, and are able to spot these wastes and then apply the simple techniques of 5S to eliminate or reduce them, this world could be a slightly better place to live in.

One technique in 5S which is widely used to reduce waste of the sort I have discussed here is Visual Control. I will explain the next time.

***********************************

In my other blog, I once posted an essay about a very different type of waste. Do check it out here.

“Death is only a sadness. Tragedy lies in waste.” – Herman Wouk

Seiso your computer keyboard

2008-09-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

In the Sunday Times, Life Section, there was an article about dirty computer keyboards. Often they are much dirtier than they look. According to a British study, our computer keyboards can have five times more germs than a toilet seat. And in Singapore, the report says that many people like to snack at their work station and at the same time never clean them. Such dirty workstations become the breeding ground of disease-causing bacteria that can cause stomach upsets and diarrhoea or worse.

It looks like this is one good place to implement 5S; especially the 3rd S, Seiso. Let’s begin with a question. Do you clean the keyboard regularly? And how do you do it? (Seiso)
As me, I use this duster once a week or so. I find it very effective because the bristles can reach in the places where a cloth cannot reach. Previously I occasionally use a cotton bud. However, it is always better to practice prevention (Seiketsu). Don’t eat when you are at the keyboard!

Besides the keyboard, I also used this duster to ‘wipe’ my LCD monitor. As for those areas behind the computer which is difficult to reach, and where dust tends to accumulate I use this mini-vacuum which I bought at Best Electromart for only $18. But I find that the suction power is a bit weak; which means I need to clean more often when the dust is still easy to remove.

TQM Training for Asean participants

2008-09-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

Last month, I was engaged by the Singapore Productivity Association to conduct a TQM Course for a group of participants from the neighbouring Asean countries. Sponsored by the Association of Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) in Japan, this 10-day course had a long title: Improving the Competitiveness of SMEs through more effective implementation of TQM.

Back in the eighties and nineties, TQM was extremely popular. At that time, I was working in the National Productivity Board, and we had regular attachments of Japanese short-term experts coming to Singapore for periods of two to three weeks. I was assigned as a counterpart to an expert in TQC by the name of Motomu Baba. I learned a lot from him. I was also sent for a one-month TQC course in Japan in 1989. However, in recent years, TQM has become less popular. Many companies that implement TQM ran into difficulties.

Hence, in this course, we devoted a significant amount of time to looking at the pitfalls that companies will face when they implement TQM. In preparing for this assignment, I realized that there are very few books and resources that deal with the so-called ‘failures’. Most books discuss only the success stories and prescribed steps on how to carry out TQM. As such, I had to develop quite a bit of my own materials; including some case studies; but it was a great learning experience for me as well.

As the main objective was to train consultants and trainers who can help SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) with what they learned in this course, I taught them a very simple model of TQM which the participants liked a lot. My model comprised a few key elements:

1) Six core quality concepts
2) Quality Management
3) Quality Improvement
4) Employee Involvement (including 5S and Quality Circles)

As part of the curriculum, the trainees were divided into groups and sent to companies to carry out what we called Field Practice; i.e. to apply what they learned in the actual company environment. I was not involved in this part of the training.

Another interesting segment of the course was a lesson conducted via video-conference by a Japanese TQM expert in Japan. I participated in that session and learnt quite a bit from the Japanese expert by the name of Noboru Machida. Some insights I gained include:

1) In Japan, they do not adopt a common model or concept of TQM. Many organizations develop their own unique approach and gave it a name of their own. In Singapore, our civil service called their’s PS21.

2) One mistake that companies made was to try to implement everything in one go which is too ambitious. Mr Machida likened TQM to a big banquet or buffet. It is not possible to sample every dish. Depending on the company’s own situation, they should choose those relevant aspects and embark on that first; and then slowly build up their own TQM from there.

3) It is wrong to use the words like ‘failure’ or ‘success’ in TQM implementation. Rather, we should adopt a PDCA approach of continuous improvement. After each cycle, we review where we have gone wrong and then we improve on the next cycle.

4) He also shared an interesting feature of the Toyota culture of “People can speak Failure” and “Learn from trouble”. It encourages staff to give honest reports so that they can see what went wrong and then proceed to improve by prevent recurrence of past mistakes.

I took the opportunity to ask some questions about the practical aspects of implementing Hoshin Kanri in a small organisation. Incidentally, he found the name of my firm very meaningful and wished that he had thought of it when he first started out on his own.

I feel a bit sad that many organizations have abandoned TQM just because there has been many ‘failures’. I believe at that time, many of us, including the consultants were still new to the subject; and there was a shortage of good training materials and case studies. Today that has changed; but unfortunately, many organizations have become wary of the name TQM and prefer to move on to newer methodologies like Six Sigma. Maybe, it would be more productive if they had stuck to one system. Anyway, that is only my opinion, and I certainly do not want to go into a debate of TQM vs 6 Sigma.

As always, I found great pleasure in teaching participants from the less developed countries. They are very keen to learn and show great respect to the teacher. I hope I can find the opportunity to go these countries, just like the time I went to Myanmar in 2005 to share my expertise with them.

Why are the Japanese so disciplined?

2008-07-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

In 1985, I was sent to Japan for three-and-a-half months of training in Productivity management and promotion. Whilst traveling in their crowded subway and trains, I noticed some people wearing face masks; like the little girl in this photo. I told myself; why are these people are so fearful of catching germs from the crowds. Later, I found out that people wear face masks in public when they themselves are unwell. They do not want to pass their germs to others. I really salute them for their civic-consciousness.

Have you ever wondered why the Japanese are so disciplined? I guess there must be many reasons. But I think one of the main reasons is that they are taught from young to be disciplined and considerate to others.

It starts in the home. In Japan, most women stop working when they are married and become full-time housewives. They devote a lot of time to rearing up their kids and do not employ domestic maids like we do in Singapore. In Singapore, usually both husband and wife have full time jobs and they will employ foreign domestic maids from countries like Indonesia and Philippines to take care for their home and kids in their absence. As such, Singapore children seldom have to do household chores like washing dishes, cleaning their rooms or even make their own beds. Most of the time, they have someone to clean up after them. So of course when they grow up, doing 5S does not naturally to them.

Recently, I learned that at school, Japanese school children are also taught to keep things clean and tidy. Once a week, they have to do what we call ‘area cleaning’ in the army.

Last year my youngest daughter, who studies Japanese language as a third language, was sent to Hamamatsu in Japan on an exchange programme. I asked her to take some photos of Japanese students doing such ‘area cleaning’ (souji wo suru). I share them with you here.

Each student keeps 2 pairs of shoes – one pair for use inside the school, and another pair which they wear home. These racks are for them to keep their extra pair of shoes. Every morning when they get to school, they will change over to their school shoes. At the end of the day, they will change back to their other pair.

Besides cleaning their own class room, they have to clean common places like the gym and the corridors. This is done once a week.

Shitsuke is Discipline

2008-06-21T02:56:00.000-07:00

I have come across various definitions of Shitsuke in books and websites, such as:

a) Training and discipline
b) Sustaining
c) Continuing training
d) Maintaining standards
e) Commitment
f) Adherence to standards

I believe the original meaning of this word Shitsuke is used in the context of teaching children and it means manners and discipline. In Japanese, it is written as 躾.

In the context of the work place, I would define Shitsuke as discipline. It means Conforming, or “doing what’s been is decided”. I have taken this definition from a passage that I came across in a book entitled; The Canon Production System, Creating Involvement of the Total Workforce by Alan T. Campbell.

"Canon has benefited in two important ways through the 5S Movement.

First is the workers’ change in consciousness - a readiness to follow rules and “do what’s been decided”… For example, keeping parts and tools in their place was once a hard rule to enforce. It is never broken now; this reduces delays and wasted motion and helps visually control the workplace.

The second benefit can be seen in the manufacturing process itself, in fewer accidents and equipment breakdowns, increased work efficiency, and lower defect rates."

This definition implies that Shituke is something that comes from within a person. It is more than simply following rules and regulations. It includes unwritten rules and basic courtesies and consideration for others. And it is something the person will do as a habit, without having to be reminded.

For example, I often meet clients in their premises. Sometimes, to the embarrassment of the host, we find that the whiteboard in the meeting rooms are quite dirty and there’s writing left on the board from a previous meeting. This is so even in many office blocks which are being kept clean by cleaners. Although there are no written rules which say that the user should clean the whiteboard after use, it is something that is ‘understood’.

In this regard, I think of something that I find quite shameful as a Singaporean. There was a time when I often see stickers in public toilets warning of a fine of $500 if you did not flush the toilet after use. As a Singaporean, don’t you feel ashamed that our authorities need to put up posters reminding us to keep our toilets clean and threaten people with a fine for doing something that should come automatically; and in the process live up the our reputation of being a ‘fine city’.

Anyway, this threat apparently did not work and so nowadays, they have installed auto-sensors to flush the toilets automatically. Alas, this measure has become counter-productive because in many public toilets, especially those in our kopitiams (coffee shops) these sensors do not work. Consequently, the toilets become even dirtier and smellier than before. I am very much tempted to put up a photo of one of these typical toilets here, but I think I will spare you the dear reader of the torture.

Photo by Flickr member neajjean

Photo by Flickr member doc_ido

Shitsuke is a fundamental requirement for any organisation that wants to excel in quality, productivity and safety. We all know that without cooperation, consideration for our fellow workers, it is very difficult to develop a culture that ensures safety and productivity. Hence in explaining Shitsuke to my trainees, I emphasize 3 aspects. (And by the way, integral to these 3 qualities is punctuality):

a) Cooperation
b) Consideration
c) Care

As members of an organisation, we have a basic responsibility to be considerate, and to cooperate with and even care for the safety and welfare of our fellow workers. This is the heart of Shitsuke.

In the beginning of this blog, I wrote about the littering problem in Singapore and compared ourselves with the Japanese. Have you ever wondered why the Japanese are able to do what we have been struggling to achieve for so many years? I think the answer lies in the homes and the schools. I will elaborate next time.

Another reason why you should 'Seiri"

2008-05-29T03:58:00.001-07:00

Seiri, as you may recall, means Clearing - to get rid of clutter.

I recently came across a Focus on Family article in Today newspaper which says that clutter causes stress. The title of the article is: Decluttering Your Life. Here are some excerpts from the article:

** Experts say the most common cause of stress among women (housewives) is Clutter. The more stuff you accumulate, the more stressed you get. And the less likely you’ll be to function effectively.

** The sooner you stop putting things off the better.

** Don’t be afraid to throw a few things away.

Seiketsu is Maintaining

2008-05-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

As you practice the previous 3 S’s regularly, you will naturally progress to the 4th S which is Seiketsu. Seiketsu means maintaining the uncluttered, neat and clean condition that you have achieved in practicing Seiri, Seiton and Seiso. It means preventing the condition from backsliding to the previous condition.

For example, after doing Seiri, you may find that new junk reappears in no time. And then you have to do Seiri again. After a while, you start to ask yourself; “Why do these unnecessary items turn up so often? How can I prevent them from reappearing so quickly?”

Likewise, after you have done Seiton, the whole place looks neat and tidy. But before long it gets messed up again, and so you ask yourself; “Why does this place get messy so quickly? Can I prevent it from getting untidy so quickly?”

Similarly it’s the case for Seiso.

Hence, in Seiketsu, we often have to adopt a problem solving approach to maintain the clean and tidy condition. In this sense, Seiketsu is more difficult than the previous 3 steps. It requires the use of our brains more than our hands.

Example 1

Let’s consider an example from the home, in this case the kitchen. You may find that frying produces a lot of oil mist which is difficult to remove from the walls of your kitchen. You then decide to install a cooker hood to extract the oily fumes. But of course you need to ensure that the cooker hood is well-maintained and functions properly. But this is not enough to remove all the fumes and so you next think of changing your kitchen walls to tiles which are easier to clean. Another measure you may want to take is to switch to non-stick frying pans which do not require much oil. And finally, you could decide to eat less fried food and switch to steaming instead.

All these measures that you come up with make it easier to maintain the clean condition of your kitchen falls under Seiketsu.

Example 2

Another example is from the public roads. In Singapore, the government has very strict rules for earth-moving trucks which travel on public roads. Before any truck leaves the construction site, its wheels must be washed to remove the mud. At the same time, these trucks are fitted with covers to prevent the earth from spilling onto the roads; although I often see trucks filled to the brim with the flaps not fully closed. Finally, construction workers have to clear away any mud that is inadvertently carried out onto the main road outside the construction site.

I hope my Malaysian friends do not get offended if I use Kuala Lumpur for comparison. When I was last there, (which was at least 10 years ago; maybe the situation has changed) I saw a lot of construction going on. I also saw a lot of dried mud outside construction sites. When a vehicles passes by, it kicks up a cloud of dust. As a result the air was quite hazy. But my Malaysian friends tend to put the blame on the forest burning habits of their fellow countrymen and neighbours in Indonesia.

Example 3

Finally, let me share with you an actual case from one of my clients. The place in question is a small office in the warehouse. When the staff embarked on 5S, they soon found that their equipment like fax machine and printers become dusty quite quickly. Initially they were quite puzzled as to where the dust came from because their office was air-conditioned. On closer examination, they realized that the dust came from the warehouse outside where lots of movement of forklift trucks took place. The dust found their way into the office through the single door which was opened frequently because of the human traffic.

The 5S team then brainstormed for ideas on how to reduce the frequency of opening and closing of the door. Finally they decided to change some procedures so that production and delivery staff need not come into the office so often. They put a box near the counter outside their office for the production and delivery personnel to deposit their documents like production orders and gate passes. They also provided a chop and staplers and other facilities near the outside counter. They even provided a sofa for people to wait outside instead of coming into the office.

These and other measures helped to cut down on the amount of dust entering the office and thus made it easier to maintain the cleanliness of their office and office equipment.

On a broader scale, Seiketsu also encompasses the routines that you put in place as part of the 5S system in you workplace. This could include doing regular checks and inspections of the 5S conditions.

But of course all these measures will not work unless people cooperate. And that brings us to the final S which is shitsuke or discipline, which I will touch on next time.

How to carry out Seiso (for equipment)

2007-12-15T01:28:00.000-08:00

An Example from the home

My kids are very fortunate. They each have their own personal PC’s. But I was quite angry when I saw how dirty their machines were. Not only were the difficult-to-reach cables at the back of the PC filthy, even the PC body and monitor were covered with a layer of dust. They promised (after repeated naggings) to do it after their exams.

One day, they told me they have done it. I was surprised, because I didn’t recall seeing them cleaning their workstation in the manner that I expect. On checking I found that only surface of the PC body has been wiped. The back was just as filthy and dusty as ever.

An Example from the factory

Once I was working with a small local furniture manufacturer. This was many years ago, and I had just started working as a management consultant and was still quite new to the technique of 5S. I noticed that their machines were very dirty and I convinced the boss to implement the third ‘S’ – Seiso. He allowed the workers to stop work about 10 to 15 minutes before the end of their work shift to clean their machines.

On the first day, I eagerly went down to the factory 5 minutes before closing to see how the workers were doing. I expected to see them busily cleaning their machines. Guess what I saw. They were all cleaned up and waiting for the siren next to the clock card machine. I then went to one of the machines. It looked quite clean. The saw dust have been swept away from the surface of the machine. But when I banged on the machine, lots of dust fell to the ground.

The lesson from these two examples is this: Cleaning must be properly planned and should not be left to the workers. The supervisor or group leader should make a Cleaning Schedule and supervise its implementation until he is happy that everyone understands his role.

How to prepare a Cleaning Schedule

It’s quite simple really. All you need to consider are the “5 wives and 1 husband”. Well actually in this case, 3 wives will suffice.

1) What – make a list of the cleaning tasks. If the machine is a huge one, divide it into sections first.

2) When – decide on the frequency of each of the cleaning tasks; which ones need to be done daily, which ones weekly and so on.

3) Who – where more than 1 persons are involved, divide out the work.

4) How – decide on the best method for each task and the tools required.

After that it is just a simple matter of putting all the above into a big chart; preferably with diagrams to illustrate the key points and of course some warnings about safety precautions and so on. Put up the Cleaning Schedule on a prominent place near the machine and supervise the implementation. Fine-tune your procedure as necessary along the way.

F-Label Technique

Seiso is a form of Checking or Inspection.

Remember this principle that we learned last time. As the workers carry out their cleaning or Seiso, make sure they keep a look out for minor defects. Minor defects are problems in the machine or equipment which do not need urgent attention because the machine can still run with them. Examples are dents, broken catches, missing nuts and screws, loose wires etc. In most factories, operational people will not take the initiative to rectify or report these minor problems. As a result they will tend to accumulate until the machine finally breaks down.

The secret is to achieve a situation where your machines are all working like new is to thoroughly implement Seiso and ensure that all these minor defects are repaired as soon as possible. The Japanese like to use a technique called F-label technique to handle such minor defects.

1) As soon as a minor defect is discovered, the worker should repair it himself if possible. Sometimes it could be something as simple as a missing screw or a loose wire.

2) If practical, attach an F-label to the machine near to this minor defect. F stands for “fault”, but our local boys like to think of a dirty word.

3) Make a list of all the minor defects and discuss them with the Maintenance department to work out a plan to repair them all.

4) After each defect is repaired, remove the F-Label from the machine. Otherwise keep it there, even if they make the machine look unsightly, as if it was plastered with bandages; which it actually is in a certain sense.

If you implement the Seiso technique for equipment cleaning that I have recommended here, I assure you that you can safe yourself many heartaches resulting for machine malfunctions and stoppages.

Remember Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong ….. and they usually go wrong at the worse time, if I may add.

Seiso is Cleaning (1) – The Importance of Seiso

2007-09-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

The third ‘S’ in 5S is Seiso; and it simply means Cleaning.

Example 1: Our beloved AR-15

Many of us who have gone through NS (National Service) will remember that all soldiers were given a ‘wife’ when they joined the army. During my time it was the AR-15. Now they have a new one, SAR-something. Right from day 1, we were told to take good care of our wives. We have to keep it clean. And so we were taught how to dismantle our weapons and clean it thoroughly using a variety of tools like tweezers, rifle cleaning rod, steel brushes, flanelite etc. Every morning, when we drew our rifle from the armoury, we had to clean it. Every evening before we return it, we had to clean it again, no matter how late the hour or tired we were.

We had regular rifle inspections, and if our rifles were found to be dirty, it usually meant ‘extra duties’. Cleaning our rifles became such a basic part of army life that we could even dismantle our rifles and clean them in the dark. If you gave me an AR-15 today, it is likely that I would still be able to do it by instinct.

Question is; why is it so important to keep the rifles clean? The simple answer of course, is that we want it to be in tip-top working condition at all times. A dirty rifle is likely to give rise to problems. And in the battlefield this could spell disaster.

Example 2. The beloved lorry.

Some years ago, when I was still working as a management consultant with the National Productivity Board, I was assigned as a Productivity Manager to a company called Tat Seng Paper Containers Pte Ltd on a part time basis. This company produced carton boxes and delivers them to various MNCs. The company had 4 delivery trucks; two were owned by the company and two were owned by subcontractors.

One evening, we had a meeting until quite late in the evening. When the GM, Mr S M Low and I went to the car park, we noticed someone passionately cleaning a delivery truck. I said to Mr Low; “Wow, your staff is really hardworking; cleaning his truck at this hour.”

“That chap is not our employee,” replied the GM, “He is one of the contractors”. You can see why this contractor was so diligent in taking care of his truck. He knew that his livelihood depended on it and thus he needed to keep it in tip-top working condition. He also needed it to last for as long as possible as it represented a big chunk of his investments, probably bought with his hard-earned savings.

The lesson from these two examples is this:

Cleaning is a form of Preventive Maintenance.

Cleaning removes dust and dirt from our equipment. Dust and dirt are the cause of many equipment problems. Hence, we can say that cleaning removes the direct source of many equipment problems. This basic principle is applicable to all equipment; including those that our Creator gave us.

Example 3: Our teeth

Our teeth are important equipment which we use regularly. Some people do not take care of their teeth resulting in their loss before they even reach the age of thirty. But some people, like my dad have a good set of teeth even when they reach a ripe old age. Why the difference? The answer is mainly because the second group of people take good care of their teeth. How?

1) By regular brushing and flossing.
2) By visiting their dentist regularly.

Have you ever thought about what the dentist does whenever you saw him? The first thing he does is to do scaling. Scaling removes the ‘dirt’ which your normal brushing could not. Plus, in the process of scaling, the dentist carries out a detail check of your teeth to detect any minor problem and take action before it becomes serious. You could say, Early detection saves teeth.

Herein lies the second function of Seiso.

Seiso is a form of Checking or Inspection.

Perhaps you can understand better now what I wrote in my first article concerning my visit to Japanese factories. We were told in no uncertain terms that a dirty factory simply cannot be a productive factory. All Japanese workers are responsible for keeping their machines clean. In other words, to take ownership of them.

So far, I have limited my discussion to equipment cleaning. The logic applies to other aspects of your workplace as well - your parts and materials, your facilities, environment etc. although maybe not to such a large extent as equipment.

Next time, I will blog about how to carry out Seiso.

Seiton is Organising

2007-08-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

The second ‘S’ in 5S is Seiton; and it means Organising or: To set in order.

It’s another fundamental principle of good workplace organization. Arrange everything systematically, and in a disciplined and user-friendly manner so that anyone can find the right thing without delay. The guiding principle in Seiton is:

► A place of everything,

► Everything in its place.

When I teach this topic, I often advise my trainees to follow three simple rules:

After you have gotten rid of unnecessary items in Seiri, you have only necessary items at your workplace. Arrange or organize them systematically such that they are:

1) Easy to See
2) Easy to Take,
3) Easy to Return.

Furthermore, under Easy to See, you should design a visual control system where it is:

A) Easy to see WHERE

You should have a good address/location system so that each item has its designated location with an address. This includes using a colour code system. Then ensure the system is user-friendly by using large, clear labels. This way, when an item is not returned to its designated location, you can easily spot it.

B) Easy to see WHAT

You should try to implement a system of ‘reserved seats and matching names’. This is especially important when you have many different items that look similar. You want to avoid costly mix-ups and using the wrong items.

C) Easy to see HOW MANY

You should arrange things neatly to facilitate easy counting or measuring. Where applicable, you should indicate clearly when it is time to reorder or replenish; and how much to order.

A Personal Story

In this regard, I would like to share a personal story with you.

When my father was quite old and bed-ridden, my siblings and I hired a Philippino maid to look after him. It was not easy to find a good maid to undertake such a messy job; as most of them were young ladies who shunned this relatively easy but rather ‘dirty’ job. But we were fortunate to find any intelligent middle aged lady by the name of Lita who understood English well. All my father’s doctors praised her because she could quickly follow their instructions on my father’s medications; which made our lives much easier. Of course we had to pay her a comparatively high salary to compensate for the unpleasantness of her duties.

Her biggest fault, however, was that she did not have a good understanding of the concept of Seiton. I remember one occasion when I was conducting a class and she paged me several times. Expecting the worse, I called her as soon as I could and got this ‘urgent’ message, “Sir, sir … no more diapers.”

“How many pieces left?” I asked. “Two” she replied. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” I said in irritation.

I very well couldn’t interrupt my class to go and buy diapers, and thus waited till the end of the day before I rushed down to this shop at Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital called Abdeen’s where adult diapers were sold at a very reasonable price, and bought 2 packets of 10 pieces each. Meantime, my father had to ‘suffer’ some discomfort because his normal consumption of diapers was about 5 pieces per day. Our usual practice was to order via fax from a small company which made home deliveries if you purchased a minimum of 2 boxes. Their lead time was 2 days. It was much cheaper too when we order in bulk like this.

And so I gave Lita a lesson in 5S using the principles of Seiton I mentioned above. Being the smart lass she was, she quickly came up with a system which went something like this.

When the 2 boxes of supplies arrived, she would take out 4 or 5 packets (1 packet has 10 pieces) at put them at the end of my father’s bed. (We bought him a second-hand hospital bed). These 5 packets served as a safety stock. When the rest of the 2 boxes had been used up, she would inform me (the purchasing officer) and then start using the 5 packets which had been set aside. This way, I have sufficient time to react and my father need not suffer from lack of diapers.

I should digress to inform you that it is no simple matter to look after a bedridden old man. Besides diapers, there are many other items to manage, such as gloves, milk powder, Vaseline, urine bags, urinary catheters, disinfectant, cotton buds etc. etc. But as you can see, with a little planning and application of the 5S principles, we can have things under control and minimize the number of crises.

Of course, an in-depth application of Seiton goes far beyond what I have covered here. I shall go into it at a later date.

Clearing Campaign

2007-07-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

This past week, I have been doing a lot of Seiri.

As of next week, I will be shutting down my office and working from home. For the past 6 years, I have been sharing office with a couple of friends and associates. But recently, they have gone separate ways, and so to cut costs, I have decided to give up the office and work from home.

The volume of work that my firm has been handling has reduced quite significantly over the past 2 years. And as I approach my 55th year, I think it is good time to move back home and reevaluate my options. I will continue to do free lance consultancy, specializing in 5S; but what I really enjoy doing most at this stage of my career is writing. I have been doing a self-study course with the Writers Bureau and if the opportunity arises, I certainly would like to diversify into this area of work. I ask myself, If not now, when?

Initially, I wanted to bring back 2 steel cabinets to store all by stuff. Then I decided, I better put into practice what I have been teaching others. So I did the first ‘S’ in 5S which is Sort and Discard. Over the past 10 years, I have accumulated tons of equipment, books, files, course notes and documents which I don’t really use or have too many copies of. So, I discarded most of them. I even gave away a mini-fridge, an old photocopier and a pc and laser printer. I also left behind some furniture for the next tenant. Now, I don’t even need the 2 steel cabinets. To save space, I converted many project reports to soft copy, videos tapes to DVDs and CDroms to an external hard disk.

One important principle that you should bear in mind in Seiri is this. You should do it regularly and not wait till an occasion such as the one I am facing, when you are forced to make quick decision. Your chances of making the mistake of accidentally throwing away things you actually need, and keeping things that you don’t need will be much smaller.

Interesting Example of Seiri

2007-06-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

In my previous article about getting rid of clutter (Seiri), I mentioned that we should even get rid of useless thoughts and habits! Well I came across something quite similar to that in an article in Today (the newspaper) today.

Writing in his regular Focus on the Family column, Dr James Dobson gave this advice on how to handle the problem of Anxiety.

“It is widely believed now that general anxiety such as agoraphobia or other specific fears are the by-products of powerful feelings that have been repressed, and we must learn to deal with them ….. Only when we’ve begun to clean up the powerful emotions that we’ve stored away in the toxic dump of our minds, will we rid ourselves of the their seepage into our daily lives”.

Get Rid of Clutter

2007-05-31T01:49:00.001-07:00

I once read in the Readers Digest of a profession known as Clutter Consultants. These are people who you hired to come into your homes to help you to literally put your house in order. And yes, you might have guessed as the author did, that this could only happen in America, the land of plenty.

The first thing this clutter consultant is likely to do is to get you to practise what in 5S is called Seiri, or Clearing. You have to sort your stuff into necessary and unnecessary; and get rid of the latter. Give, sell, throw; it doesn’t matter. Just don’t keep them lying around. And as one Japanese author put it; you have to be ‘ruthless’.

This is the most fundamental first step towards higher productivity. Many of us have a habit of keeping things which we cannot decide whether or not we needed. In other words, we procrastinate. The first rule in 5S is; When in doubt, get rid of it. Of course this may sound a bit extreme. At the very least, I would say, you should make a decision to decide later. By that I mean, mark those things that you cannot confirm are truly unnecessary. Come back to it X number of months later, and if you still cannot find any use for it - dump it!

But what if I accidentally throw away something that I later discover that I actually needed? Well too bad. It’s a risk we just have to take. The alternative is to keep on procrastinating until we have accumulated a mountain of junk; and then the task simply becomes too daunting, and we give up altogether.

Here are some tips for carrying out Seiri.

1) Do it regularly; daily or weekly or monthly depending on the item. This will prevent the problem building up into a gridlock as mentioned above. For example, for emails, we should delete the obsolete and junk emails at least once a day. A manager once told me he had a subordinate who actually kept several hundred emails in his In-box!

2) Apply Seiri to everything; not just at work but at home. Not just physical things but also intangible things such as emails, addresses/contacts, steps in work procedures etc. One writer even said we should get rid of useless thoughts and habits! I say, don’t forget your own body. Get rid of the useless fats.

3) Set some rules. For example – No more than 10 emails in the In-box. Create a separate KIV folder. File all read emails required for future reference in separate folders and review them once a month.

4) Practise prevention. Think of ways to prevent junk from appearing in the first place. Timely advice you may say, considering that the Great Singapore Sale has just started. Those of you who use emails regularly must have learnt some tricks about how to prevent spam. Anyway, techniques for preventing clutter actually belong to the 4th S which is Seiketsu. More about that later.

In conclusion, I have only this simple advice. Do it now. And start with those places that you have never looked at for a long time. You will be surprised just how much junk you have acquired. Even for stuff which you use regularly, the stationery tray in front of you, the book shelf next to you, your CD collection etc. I guarantee that you will be able to find some junk if you looked hard enough.

And you will also surprised how good it feels to be rid of these junk.

This picture is from an August 2006 Straits Times article about cluttered homes belonging to some old folks which are fire hazards and breeding grounds for bugs. Volunteers visit these homes and try of help the owners to clean up. But “getting people to part with their possessions can be tough”, wrote the reporter Yap Su-Yin.

Where’s the Stuff? (东西在哪里?)

2007-05-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

I think many Singaporeans remember this very funny advertisement from Ikea. A group of thugs breaks into a house and confronts a young man.

Thug (menacingly): Where’s the stuff? Hand it over quickly! (presumably referring to drugs)
Young man: I don’t know.
Thug gets impatient and repeats question:
Young man (in exasperated voice): I don’t know. I really don’t know.

And then the camera zooms out and we see the young man’s room is in a complete mess with things strewn all over the place. And the message from the advertisers says: "Storage problems?" ..… I think you can guess what they are selling.

I love this advertisement. It’s funny and it brings across so graphically the basic message of 5S, which is:

Good housekeeping makes it easier to find things and thus improves productivity.

But what happens when you get to the workplace?

Over the past 20 years, I have amassed literally thousands of photos of cluttered, messy and dirty workplaces. Most of the time, people know that it is important to practise good housekeeping, but they are too busy and have ‘no time’. Unfortunately, these people will wait till a crisis arises before they try to put their house in order; such as in the event of an accident, or a warning from the authorities or an impending visit by their customer. In other words, they think that housekeeping is important but not urgent. We will do it when we have time. But the longer you delay, the dirtier the place becomes and the more difficult it is to put right.

In his outstanding book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey says that a highly effective person is one who is 'proactive' and 'puts first things first'. He distinguishes tasks that are urgent but not important, from those that are important but not urgent, and consciously sets aside time for the latter. Good housekeeping, or what we call 5S belongs to the second category. My Japanese teacher, Mr Motomu Baba puts it differently; "Do fire-preventing, not fire-fighting."

So take a good look at your workplace. Is it like the photos below? If it is, in Steven Covey’s book, you are not creative but ineffective.

No Littering in Singapore?

2007-04-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

There’s an article in page 35 of The Straits Times today titled, Singapore Wows Vancouver Visitor. Written by a Vancouver architect, planner and property developer, Michael Geller, the article was full of praise for our country; especially its cleanliness. “During my stay, I did not see any litter on the streets.” he declared.

“CLEAN LIVING: No littering, no graffiti … Singapore has to be the cleanest country in the world.”

Really? Maybe if Mr Geller had visited blogger, Walter’s estate, or those of some of Walter’s readers who left comments in his blog, he might have a change of opinion. Of course, he should make his visit early in the morning before our army of cleaners start their rounds.

One of my Japanese 5S teachers at the National Productivity Board, Mr K. Tsuchiya once told us that there are 3 classes of workplaces.

1) A First Class workplace is one where nobody litters and yet everybody is picking up any rubbish that is found.

2) A Second Class workplace is one where some people litter but there are others who pick up the rubbish.

3) A Third Class workplace is one where many people litter but nobody is picking up the rubbish.

Walter’s article about the littering problem in his estate prompted me to ask, Is Singapore 1st, 2nd or 3rd class by Mr Tsuchiya’s yardstick?

There was a time when I liked to ask my trainees what they thought. Usually, most of them would say 2nd class. We have many litter bugs here, but we also employ many cleaners to clean up after them. However, judging by what Walter wrote and what his readers have commented, I suspect we are not even 2nd class because, the litterbugs seem to doing a more efficient job than the cleaners. Hence, nowadays, I dare not put the question to my trainees anymore, for fear of hearing the truth.

As a 5S trainer, I liked to collect newspaper articles regarding the littering/cleanliness problem in Singapore. I post a few of them here. Take a look for yourself and see if you agree with Mr Geller that there’s no littering in Singapore.

The picture above is from 1995

This picture is from 2005. See any improvement?

My 5S Journey

2007-03-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

In May, 2003, at the peak of the SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis in Singapore, I came across an interesting article in the Straits Times where our then deputy prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong exhorted Singaporeans to learn from the Japanese; especially their sense of civic consciousness and responsibility. The article mentioned something which I have have have been working with for the past 20 years – the Japanese technique of Good Housekeeping and Workplace Organisation known as 5S. (Actually, for some unknown reason, they mentioned only 4 and dropped the last one, Shitsuke, which was actually the one most relevant to the article. But never mind.)

"When it comes to cleanliness, the Japanese are hard to beat. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong referred to them in his May Day Speech, saying that "we should do like the Japanese". Japanese workplaces are notoriously neat and tidy. The Japanese are said to live by the credo of the 4Ss ......" (Straits Times, May 11, 2003)

Having been fortunate enough to be involved in the 5S Movement in Singapore since it started in 1986, I feel I can play a small part in turning the PM's goals into reality. Through this blog, I would like to share my knowledge and thoughts about this subject of 5S; and of course, at the same time, I hope to promote my services to potential clients. As some of you may be aware, I run my own consulting business, Hoshin Consulting which provides training and consultancy in 5S and other productivity-related areas.

What is 5S?

5S is the acronym for 5 Japanese words; Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke.

Seiri (整理) means Clearing.
Seiton (整顿) means Organising.
Seiso (清扫) means Cleaning.
Seiketsu (清洁) means Maintaining, and
Shitsuke (no Chinese equivalent word) means Discipline.

My First Encounter With 5S

My first encounter with 5S was in 1985 when I was sent by the National Productivity Board to Japan for three-and-a-half months of training. During this time, I visited many outstanding Japanese companies and noticed that they all strongly emphasized keeping the company and its equipment clean and in tip-top condition by this technique or system known as 5S. In 1989, I was fortunate to be sent again to Japan for a 1-month training stint in Total Quality Control, where I got to visit more companies which have won the prestigious Deming Prize.

This 1984 article in the Straits Times about the first batch of trainees to Japan for the Productivity Development Project Fellowship (PDP) training caught my attention. After seeing this article, I promptly applied for a job at NPB as a trainer in the IOE (Industrial and Operations Engineering) Department. And then in September 1985, I joined the 3rd batch of trainees for PDP fellowship training in Japan. The training last three-and-a-half months from 8 Sep to 20 Dec.

The photo below was taken in 1985 at a plant called Aisin Seiki in Nishio, a company that manufactures brake pumps for Toyota Motors. I am standing, 3rd from the right. We were attached to Aisin Seiki for 2 weeks. Would you believe that we are at a rock garden right in the middle of the factory. The factory was so clean that it was a 'shock' for us Singaporeans.

When I returned to Singapore, my colleagues and I worked closely with the Japanese experts attached to NPB and we aggressively promoted 5S in Singapore; especially to the small and medium sized companies. We conducted lots of training and consultancy projects and produced training videos, as well as organized various promotional activities. We even provided training to other consultants not only from Singapore, but also the other Asean countries through what was known as the Japan-Asean Regional Training Programme. For my part in this effort, I was awarded what was called the Triple-A Award in October 1988.

After I left the NPB in 1992, I continued to provide 5S training and consultancy to companies in Singapore and the region up to today. Although, on the whole, I believe I have lost out in terms of monetary remuneration, when compared to my colleagues who remained in the NPB, (myself to be blamed for not being a very good entrepreneur), I think I gained a lot especially from the exposure to companies in other countries. My work took me to many different parts if Malaysia, like Pasir Gudang, Shah Alam, Kerteh (in Trengganu), Port Dickson, Melaka, Bangi, Kuantan, Kuching and Bintulu. I even had 2 memorable assignments in the beautiful country of Seychelles as well as more recent ones in Indonesia and Myanmar. As a self-employed consultant, my working hours are much for flexible and I could spend more time with my family and church; and indulge in my favourite pastime – blogging.

Through this blog, I hope to share and learn more about 5S which is widely applicable even in the home and public places. Of course, I hope to receive lots of contributions from my readers, including other consultants. Also, I do not intend to limit the topic to only 5S but to other subjects related to productivity and quality.

Finally, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my Japanese teachers who have taught me so much; especially Mr Hajime Suzuki, Mr Kazuo Tsuchiya and Mr Motomu Baba.

A shot of Mr Suzuki (left) in the early days of our 5S journey.

You probably know what they say about consultants. They borrow your watch, tell you the time and walk away with it. So I must also thank those people who have lent me their watches, during these past 20 years. I hope I can return some of them through this blog; and at the same time borrow a few more.