Deadly Waste #6: Inventory and Storage

In this blog series, we will describe the Seven Deadly Wastes and their impact on workplace productivity. We will focus on examples to help paint a picture of how each waste affects the office place, in the hopes that you will be able to identify where waste is occurring, and how you might prevent it. Catching waste before it happens will support your lean 5S office efforts while boosting morale and promoting overall workplace efficiency.

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It is a little known truth that everything we own and which takes up space costs us money. This is true at home and in the office. When each square foot of office space is being paid for, that space is valuable and costs money to manage. We often see clients who store boxes and boxes of paper files, many of which are way past their retention guideline date. We also have residential clients who pay for storage units to house all of their extra stuff, most of which is unneeded or unwanted.

Use your office real estate wisely

Another good example of the waste of inventory and storage is in this manufacturing client’s storeroom: see the photos below. The company had this paper lying around from an old project, but hadn’t touched it in several years. As you can see, when we removed the paper, we were able to eliminate the waste of storing it, in addition to freeing up new space for items that they actually needed to use and access on a daily basis.

We also created photos to go on the inside of a closet door to represent the items that should be found inside (this is the “Standardize” step of 5S.) Read more about 5S workplace organization. By standardizing the storage for these workplace items, this company is now able to order supplies only when they are needed, thereby eliminating the need for additional storage space to house excess inventory.

Note: Many of the examples used in this blog series come from Thomas A. Fabrizio and Don Tapping’s fabulous book “5S For the Office”. Please check it out if you would like more information on the subject. It is available for purchase here.

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