‘Well Just Leave It There Til We Need It’
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AlonzoMosley.
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August 14, 2019 at 4:16 pm #241040
AlonzoMosleyParticipant@AlonzoMosleyInclude @AlonzoMosley in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Just did a Sort and Set in a remote area of the plant, on a high floor.
There’s a large piece of scaffolding that Maintenance apparently abandoned years ago – no one remembers the last time it was used.
We red tagged it and sent out an email.
The Maintenance Supervisor said – “We will leave it in place until we need it.”
Happy to fight the good fight – BUT, to be fair, to get it out of there, we’d need a crane and a hoisting crew for the day (it’s on the tenth floor with no elevators).
BUT it’s almost never used.
What’s the right answer, Internet?
0August 15, 2019 at 7:12 am #241054
Andrew ParrParticipant@Andy-ParrInclude @Andy-Parr in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Almost never……………so it is used.
Is there the best place for it to be stored? If you red tag and get rid of it, when might it be needed and what is the cost of having to get a new one into place when it is needed?
These and many other questions need answering before you incur the wrath of Maintenance and get rid of it!
0August 15, 2019 at 11:12 am #241056
Mike CarnellParticipant@Mike-CarnellInclude @Mike-Carnell in your post and this person will
be notified via email.@AlonzoMosley I didn’t think anyone else in this world remembered Midnight Run.
Anytime you need a crane to get something down Gravity will also work. It doesn’t work well to lift things.
0August 16, 2019 at 8:59 am #241077
Aaron OlsonParticipant@aaronolsonInclude @aaronolson in your post and this person will
be notified via email.@alonzomosley I saw your question on another forum that I crawl sometimes but this vehicle is faster.
Feel free to take this with a mountain of salt but hopefully it allows for conversation:
I have a few assumptions about 5S that are continually improving:
- 5S is used to solve problems and not simply to be organized, shiny, and “right”; it may solve not having the right items when/where you need them, knowing when something is out of standard condition, not knowing where to find things, allowing for standard work to be visualized, improve flow to avoid waiting, inventory, transportation, and movement, etc.
- There are no “5S police” (unless that’s your job within the company, in which case you make the rules then?) that will catch you for not doing things “right” — (Sorry, @Mike-Carnell , I sort of stole that from you)
- Moving something out of an area will not, typically, make you magically more efficient or cut cost drastically; it does allow you space to focus on the work and see it clearly enough to improve it
With the above framework, I recommend asking yourself the following questions:
- What advantage does moving this equipment actually have?
- Does it outweigh the cost of moving it in the first place?
- Is that area desperately needed and will allow you to avoid cost, job loss, panic, hysteria, chaos, etc.?
- Does having it there prevent addressing flow, placement, or following each S for where the work is being done?
- Is safety a concern?
Certainly, you need to find the balance here because you are the one responsible for working on this and you have to work with your co-workers over the long-run. I would at least consider finding what is most impactful and pursuing that; I can always come back and move this junk out of the way later on.
1August 18, 2019 at 12:58 am #241113
Mike CarnellParticipant@Mike-CarnellInclude @Mike-Carnell in your post and this person will
be notified via email.@aaronolson No problem. I am proud of you. Bob Galvin was the CEO of Motorola (his father started Motorola) and he direction to us was “to steal shamelessly.” (not illegally but never walk away from a good idea).
0August 19, 2019 at 9:09 am #241121
Daniel AlfanoParticipant@dalfanoInclude @dalfano in your post and this person will
be notified via email.August 20, 2019 at 3:27 am #241164
Andrew ParrParticipant@Andy-ParrInclude @Andy-Parr in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Daniel, an interesting choice. Here in the UK a national car hire Company no longer buys spare wheels with their cars as they are so rarely used. Apparently, nationally it saved them £5 million (around $6 million) in the first year.
1August 27, 2019 at 3:16 pm #241483
Chris SeiderParticipant@cseiderInclude @cseider in your post and this person will
be notified via email.a remote area…. was this necessary on the pareto of areas to tackle?
IF it’s used sometimes…as hinted by your post–consider the economics and effort for removal and reinstalling.
0October 31, 2019 at 3:47 pm #243250
AlonzoMosleyParticipant@AlonzoMosleyInclude @AlonzoMosley in your post and this person will
be notified via email.“Remote” = up ten flights of stairs in an unairconditioned building running 1400F equipment on the Bayou, requires a crane to move anything of consequence in and out. Workers are in and out of there every day.
There are, in fact, 5S Police. And they are typically staffed by folks in wrinkle-free trousers and pima cotton golf shirts, who believe that the only PPE they need is a corporate T&E card and an underwhelming lack of practical experience.
The argument “if it’s not really bothering you, is it a bother” is specious, here, in my opinion. The fact that this piece of equipment is where it is has everything to do with a general sense of laziness and lack of follow-through. Will plant operations be any different with this sucker gone? Probably not. But we are asking operators to step up, to take some genuine accountability for workplace conditions and to just all around give a shit. To turn around and say, “Well, yeah, YOU need to clean up after yourselves, but those guys can just leave their equipment in your area until they need it somewhere else” is anathema to everything I want to accomplish.
And, lastly, the spare tire HAS a place where it belongs. If the spare tire was kept in your back seat, it would be a different argument. And it’s not like you go to the tire store and say, “Man, I don’t remember where I left my spare tire. I’d best buy a new one!” When you leave equipment in a dark corner of a hotter-than-blazes room 140 feet above ground level on the other side of the plant, it’s pretty easy to just go ahead and buy/rent another one when you need it.
Phew.
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