When I first heard that we need to eliminate waste to become lean in the I-CAR class I took, I thought of hazardous waste. However, they explained the waste that they were referring to was wasted time, steps, work, etc. Basically, eliminating anything that is not being paid for by the customer. For example, shuffling cars around, trips back and forth to your toolbox, never ending paperwork, etc. This sounds like the phrase “work smarter not harder to me.” Or maybe good time management.
I am one of the worse people to shuffle papers. I put them in piles and reorganize the piles numerous times before determining what to do with them. I’ve heard to work smarter, you should only touch the paper one time. For example, file, mail, or though it in trash. Same with your mail. Open it and put it where it goes, not in piles. Another thing that I’m bad about is e-mail. I open them and scan them. However, I don’t delete them because think that I may need to come back and thoroughly read them later. It usually gets lost in the incoming e-mails and I never reread it. I wish that I would get in the habit of opening an e-mail, reading it, then deleting or putting it in a file. It would make my life so much easier.
Whether it’s papers, parts, cars, or time, you need to look for ways to eliminate waste. Work smarter not harder. This reminds me of a joke my dad told me when I was a kid that I will close with. There were these two hard working young men that got a job hand painting the stripes on the road with a paint brush. The first day they finished and reported to their boss. The boss could not believe how far they striped. He told them that was the record for striping. The next day they reported to their boss when they finished with about average distance as the other crews. The boss thought to himself, not as good, but average. However, the next day they reported to their boss with very little work done. That was it, the boss become very angry. He said, you come to me with record distance of work achieved the first day, average distance yesterday, and way below every other team today; what is your problem? They said, sir we’re working hard everyday. It’s just getting further back and forth to dip the brush in the paint bucket each time. The point of this story is, just because you’re working hard (busywork) does not me that you’re being productive.
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