Visual Workplace Radio: Let The Workplace Speak

When 5S came to our shores from Japan in the early 1980s, its purpose and process seemed simple, straightforward, and useful. Easy-peasy. But implementing 5S turned into an entirely different story. Though many western companies enjoyed remarkable triumphs, others struggled—or quite simply failed. Why? Join us this week as Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual workplace expert, shares her answers. In the process, she draws sharp differences between US and Japanese values. She also names three other culprits: 1) confusions in the English translation; 2) the mistaken notion that 5S was a surefire way to build an engaged workforce; and 3) the decision to use the 5S audit as a key sustainment tool. As Dr. Galsworth points out, that decision pitted a compliance format that required people to adhere to the rules of 5S—against the attempt to use the same audit to build creative improvement. The workforce balked. The gap was just too wide for many companies to bridge. Tune in/learn more.