This fourth S ‘Standardise’ in the 5s cycle involves creating guidelines for keeping an area organized, orderly, and clean.

These guidelines ensure that everyone is completing the same tasks in the same way in the correct time frame. This brings stability to the process and reduces variation in results.

This step also includes creating any visuals to ensure the standards are kept, it’s important to make it easy for people to see what the ‘standard’ to be achieved is.

Follow these steps to implement the Standardise step:

• Get the team together and decide the specific tasks required to keep the office area organized and the frequency of the tasks.
• Determine who will perform the tasks and when.
• Publish a visual schedule and images of ‘What good looks like’…..
• Develop checklists for people to follow when completing tasks.
• Conduct training so that the people performing the tasks can achieve ‘What good looks like’…..

In the next post we’ll look at the most difficult and ongoing step in the Lean 5s process: Sustain.

If you have any questions or comments then get in touch.

Karen

The post The Lean Office Part 4: Standardise appeared first on Smart Admin Services.

The 3rd step in the 5s cycle is known as SHINE and it’s about cleaning and maintaining the equipment and resources that you use in the office.

S3 focuses on regular cleaning and upkeep of the area and establishing the frequency in which the area is kept clean on a regular basis.  This ranges from cleaning your keyboard, your printer and screens to having the carpets cleaned every month.

The following steps would comprise S3 Shine:

• Set time aside for an initial office “spring cleaning.”
• Identify and source the required cleaning materials and have these located in a designated area that is clearly marked with items labelled.
• Conduct your initial cleaning.
• Create a 5S cleaning plan so everyone knows what needs to be cleaned by who and when.
• Follow the cleaning plan.
• Make sure cleaning materials and tools are well stocked so that there are no excuses to carrying out cleaning tasks.
• Have re-order points established for cleaning materials so that you don’t run out.

The important point in this step is to identify what needs to be cleaned, how it should be kept clean, and by whom.

Ensure a visual chart is created so everyone is aware of what is expected and take photographs to ‘set cleaning standards’ these standards answer: What does good look like?

If an area continues to get dirty then get the team together and root cause this to identify a solution to address it and then implement it quickly.

In the next post we’ll look at the fourth step in the 5s cycle: Standardise.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

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The use of Xero accounting cloud based software for small business has grown rapidly worldwide to more than 400,000 customers.

The key benefits of using Xero for small business accounting in comparison to other non cloud based accounting solutions are:

• Bank statement lines are automatically fed into your Xero account.
• It’s user friendly.
• You get a real-time view of how your business is doing.
• Accessibility – use Xero anywhere, anytime on any device including your smartphone.
• Unlimited collaboration with your staff and trusted business advisors.

Our experience is that the accessibility, collaboration and real time information are the biggest benefits for small business owners, you can login and work from anywhere, giving you freedom and flexibility. Xero also enables you to connect to many other cloud based business applications like Workflow Max.

Using cloud based software can be a change in mindset from traditional software access but switching to cloud based software has excellent benefits for your business:

• You have a clear overview of your current financial position, in real time
• Multi-user access makes it easy to collaborate online with your team
  and advisors.
• Worry-free maintenance means you can spend more time doing what you love.
• Everything is run online, so there’s nothing to install and everything is backed up automatically. Updates are free and instantly available.
• Upfront business costs are reduced – version upgrades, maintenance, system administration costs and server failures are no longer issues.
• Instead, they are managed by the cloud service provider.

Smart Admin Services has been using Xero for almost 5 years and we highly recommend it, Xero bookkeepers have experience in setting you up with Xero, helping you migrate from your exisiting software and provide ongoing support, if you need Xero help then please contact us.

We are also experienced with MYOB, Quickbooks, Sage and bespoke accounting packages.

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If you’ve followed the guidelines from my first post on improving your office productivity through 5s by now you should have:

• Completed the first of the 5s step ‘sorting’ (A.K.A red tagging/labeling) of those items that you don’t need on your desk, around your desk and in your office.
• Any unneeded items or items you’re not sure about should now be in your ‘tagged item’ holding zone.

The visual result now should be a much tidier work area, free from unneeded clutter!

Your next step is to review the ‘tagged’ items in your holding zone, think of this zone as your clearing area.

• Get rid of the Items in this zone that are definitely not needed immediately.  Can another department use them? Can you sell them?

If you have some items left in your holding zone it will be because you need them.  You now need to review your entire work area, your desk, around your desk and the general office work-space to determine the best place to locate all items that you definitely need including files and folders, pens, stationary etc.

In the Lean 5s cycle this step is called ‘Set In Order’ and it’s about making sure that everything has a place and when an item is used that it’s returned to it’s place (it’s home).

This second step is about minimizing the time and motion spent searching for items in the office, which interrupts your flow and causes frustration for you and everyone else.

In the manufacturing environment shadow boards are used to identify an item’s home, they are very useful because when an item is not returned ‘home’ it’s easy to see.

Some examples of shadow boards:

The shadow boarding concept applied to an office drawer:

To help you determine the best place to locate your items use the table below as a guide, taking the frequency of item usage into consideration will help you determine the best ‘home’ for it and you can then set about marking/labeling it’s home.

Email me if you need a copy of the template above.

Try to make the items ‘home’ location as visible as possible.

In the next post we’ll look at S3: Shine.

The post The Lean 5s Office: Set Your Office in Order appeared first on Smart Admin Services.

When it get’s to that point it becomes difficult to find information, files, invoices, contact details….we get frustrated in our efforts to find something and loose

valuable time that could be better used for generating more leads or visiting an important customer.

My husband does Lean Consulting work with local manufacturing companies and a great Lean tool that he shared with me that’s really applicable to office productivity is 5S.

5S is workplace method for getting organised and standardizing how we do things and it’s not rocket science to put in place.

In this series of posts I’ll share with you how to apply 5s in your office, follow the process and you’ll dramatically reduce frustration, improve productivity and get more done with a lot less hassle.

5s is a cycle:

Step 1: You Sort

Step 2: You Set In Order

Step 3: You Shine

Step 4: You Standardize

Step 5: You Sustain the other 4.

So let’s look at Step 1 Sort:

In Lean terms this is also known as Red Tagging and what you simply do is schedule a time to run a Red Tag event in the office.

During your Red Tag event you will place a Red Tag on items in your office and in / on / around your desk that you do not need on a daily basis to perform your job.

* The goal here is to visually identify the items, you do not have to use a red tag like the one I’ve shown, a simple yellow postie note will do……

As yourself:  How many times do I use this item per day?  Must I really have this on my desk?

Once you’ve completed your Red Tagging take all of those items and place them in a storage area for further sorting.

This storage area will be called your Red Tag Zone and it should be a dedicated place somewhere close to your office so that the items you have identified as not essential to do your job on a daily basis can be placed there.

You may find that when you’re doing this initial tagging of unnecessary items that you feel you may need something someday….let this thought go….you’re just adding clutter to your workspace and you’re not throwing the items out yet….you are just moving them to your designated Red Tag Zone for now.

Once you’ve completed your Red Tagging and moved the items to your holding zone you will notice how uncluttered your office workspace is and it will be much easier to find things when you need them, you’ll be less frustrated, less stressed and will have a more productive day.

In the next post I’ll explain how to deal with those items you placed in your Red Tag Zone and introduce Step 2: Set In Order.

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