The Sort Phase – Playing the 5S “Moving House” Game
Do you remember the last time you moved from one residence to another? I don’t think I’ve ever met a person yet who says, “I love moving! Bring on the boxes!” Moving requires us to pack up and sort all of our belongings and it’s inevitable someone will pick up a certain item and say, “What in the world is THIS? Do we really need it?” Or, “FIVE serving spoons?! Why?”
Remember how great it felt to throw things out or donate them to a thrift store? That’s the first phase of 5S: Sort or Seiri. To successfully complete this phase, you remove all unnecessary items from the workspace and take a good a long look at what remains.
We can’t organize the rest of a location until we first eliminate that which is no longer needed. The sort step reduces clutter, opens space, and provides clarity. It is also the very foundation for the other four 5S phases.
As you sort through the items, follow this simple 3-step process:
- Use Red Tags to tag unnecessary items
- Remove those items to a Red Tag zone
- Review what remains to ensure those items are necessary.
Learn more about making your red tag program successful.