Lean in the Bathroom? Not Likely!

I like the idea of using the bathroom as a tool to teach lean. You set a standard, you make the work easy, you train people to the standard and you hold each other accountable. However, when I tried this in my factory, it got ugly fast!

• “You can’t make people clean the bathroom, they’ll quit!”
• “There is no sense setting a standard you can’t enforce, and there is no way to enforce standards in a bathroom!”
• “I don’t want anything to do with this, and I won’t allow my people to participate in this in any way!”
• “Dirty bathrooms are a contractor problem!”
• “Those bathrooms are disgusting. I put on gloves before I step foot in there.”

Meanwhile, the bathrooms have no gloves, no plungers, no toilet brushes, no backup toilet paper, no idea where to get supplies or who to go to if there is a problem, plus there is a bunch of non-bathroom cleaning junk slapped into an empty stall. I’m starting to understand why we have problems in so many other areas–it’s the same inability to set and maintain a standard.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Have any of you found this extreme resistance to having clean bathroom–or in broader terms–setting and maintaining a standard?

• This topic was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by Ahiru-san.
• This topic was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by Katie Barry.