I was sitting in a meeting where the principles of 5S were being reviewed. For those who are not aware, 5S is the name of a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. Transliterated or translated into English (Sort, Straighten, Sanitize (Shine), Standardize and Sustain), they all start with the letter “S”. The list describes how to organize a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order. The decision-making process usually comes from a dialogue about standardization, which builds understanding among employees of how they should do the work. I often sketch while I’m listening so while we were talking about 5S this happened:
When the meeting was over I liked the sketch enough to spend some time drawing it in AI and doing some rendering in Photoshop:
