A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing – 5S & #Lean
1. A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing – 5S & #Lean
I?read this valid complaint from somebody on a LinkedIn group.... it led to a "facepalm" that I
managed to catch on camera:
I interviewed with a medium sized company for a quality Manager position a while back. They were
convinced that 5S is lean. They referred to 5S as the "five pillars" of lean. A lot of companies took a
short seminar on one of the tools and are convinced that lean is a single tool, or a tool box. Most did
not take the time bring in a consultant or hire a experienced Continuous Improvement person, and
just did a low effort follow the fad approach."
That's clearly
"L.A.M.E." and it's not "Real Lean," as Bob Emiliani would put it.
As Dr. Deming often said, "There's no substitute for knowledge" (or this variation in the video
below):
It's sad that a company would think 5S = Lean. There's soooo much information about there,
2. including a lot of free information on the web. I wish people would take the time to educate
themselves. I know I'm preaching to the choir here... but what can we do other than to try correct
folks when we see Lean As Mistakenly Explained?
About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the "lean
healthcare" methodology. Mark is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and
Healthcare Kaizen, as well as the new Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. Mark is also the VP of
Innovation and Improvement Services for KaiNexus.
Tagged as: 5S, Deming, LAME, Lean
