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26 The PCB Magazine • May 2016 Housekeeping is for Sissies If there's chaos in the plant, that's a clear cry for improvement. For many organizations, 6S is considered a fluff activity with no real benefits to be realized. This is the type of wrong-headed thinking that prevents these companies from realizing the immediate improvement that Quick & Easy 6S can provide. The process of cleaning up the workplace, getting rid of what's no longer needed, and identifying specific stor- age locations for everything else, should be low- hanging fruit and the starting point for Lean. There is a productivity advantage to having an organized workplace, in keeping with the philosophy of kaizen, which is generally trans- lated from Japanese as "continuous improve- ment." Applying these concepts helps simplify the work environment while reducing waste and non-value-adding activity and improving quality, efficiency and safety. If you've set up your 6S program properly, you should be able to find a place on the floor where you can stand and immediately dis- cern visually if things are normal and going as planned. PCB Steve Williams is the president of The Right Approach Consulting llC. To read past columns, or to contact Williams, click here. QuiCk & easy 6s to reduCe HandlinG issues Figure 4: Before and after of PCB motion waste reduction project. Photos courtesy of Calumet Electronics Corporation.