Speaking of 5-S - Weekend humor

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
Speaking of 5-S - Is 5S really that good? :rolleyes:

Labeling

I work in a corporate with a load of engineers in an office, we have manufacturing too.

We had an initiative to tidy everything up, after a few years back a 28m order was delayed by 2 days whilst they tried to find the right socket on the shop floor. Now we have "a place for everything, and everything in its place." Which C suite decided was such a good idea, everyone must do it, and made it mandatory not only for the shop, but all the design and research offices too.

It also applies to individually owned engineering desks. Cue Mike from R&D, who is a genius but about as organised as a street-hookers diary (you know, desk permanently bowed from the stack of paper which has probably been there since 1992.) After receiving his 6th weekly red card in a row, HR sent their best droid to tell him that he was not immune and would face disciplinary action if he didn't conform to the new policy.

He mumbled about quitting, but he still had about 8 months until his retirement, so he got on with clearing his desk. Took him the best part of a week to dismantle his paper mountains, and he was so cross by the end of it that he labelled everything on his desk, phone, keyboard, mouse, and even put coloured taped rectangles for his laptop, keyboard position, phone position, mouse position and a little rectangle labelled "Green Card" for the HR droid to place on his next rounds.

Said droid came on the Friday and stopped dead looking at Mikes desk. Mike was in attendance at the time with a murderous glare fixated on him. Both Mike and the droid remained entirely silent throughout the ordeal, but the rest of the office were wetting themselves trying to stifle the giggles. He got his green card that day.

Credit: Brenda McViking
 

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
Probably true. I have heard of a few places demanding spartan desks with everything in the same place at every desk, i.e. all phones to the right of the keyboard, all pencil holders to the left of the monitor beside the in-box, etc.

Idiocy, if you ask me.....
 

Miner

Forum Moderator
Leader
Admin
I was in an automotive OEM's plant in the early 90's. The conference room had taped outlines for everything (e.g., O/H projector, phone, pointer, contractor safety notices, etc.). If they could have found tape to adhere to carpet, I think they would have taped outlines for the chair feet. This was major 5S overkill.
 

normzone

Trusted Information Resource
We have our own R&D tech who's office looks like an electronics performance art installation. Some types...

I've seen document control that looked like the recycling bin for newspapers.

I like that - 28m job delayed for two days for a tool hunt. No surprises there.
 

howste

Thaumaturge
Trusted Information Resource
Hmmm... I seem to remember one too:

requisitos_iso9001.gif

I remember auditing at one place where one of top management had a picture on his desk labeled "wife." :lmao:
 

nickie

Starting to get Involved
This made me laugh and reminded me of my husband's workplace. He is a retail butcher, a sole trader with his own shop of 35 years, with no employees.

He recently had a visit from some Local Authority health & safety guru telling him what needed to be done. My husband is really anti paperwork, procedures, jobsworth people....yeh, he married a QA nerd! One of the actions was to install emergency lighting so that in the event of a fire customers could find their way out of the shop (it's only a little shop). That morning he had taken the princely sum of £2.50 and replied tersely that the odds of having a customer and a fire at the same time were infinitesimal.

The last time I went there he had written himself sarcastic little notes everywhere (e.g. careful! knives can be sharp!) Apparently she was not amused on her follow up visit!
 
K

Kwilson

My girlfriend is a pharmacy technician for a large grocery store chain, and was in charge of "simplification" (5-s) for her department. She knew I had experience, so we embarked on a bit of training. Well, she is a bit of a wise-a$$, which carried over to the simplification. When she got done, she has made footprint templates for where the pharmacist is to stand, and butt prints for on the chairs.

She is no longer on simplification.:D
 
P

PaulJSmith

I worked a few years back for a large aerospace company. One of the Quality Engineers in our program had a similarly sarcastic interpretation of a 5-S event. There was nothing in his cubicle that was not outlined and labeled when the CI group came around for their inspection. As is usual, they were not nearly as amused at this as everyone else.

My Wife recently left a large construction company. Before she left, they'd moved the offices into a new building near downtown St. Louis. A memo from the CEO went around regarding what was and was not allowed in the new office environment. This included the number and sizes of pictures allowed, their placement, and the specific frames to use ... which were to be ordered through the front desk receptionist. When we were cleaning out our house for the remodeling project, she found a bag with those unused frames. They're now somewhere in the bottom of the dumpster behind the house.
 
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