The meaning of the word Seiri is Classification. But we can also understand it as Organization.
To quickly understand what this is all about, it's easy to think about the following principle: Organize/Classify means keeping in each work area "only what is needed, in the quantity needed, and only when needed." It means organizing the ways of placing and maintaining necessary things so that anyone can easily find and use them. It involves placing objects based on urgency. That is, what is used most should be closest to the person. As we can see, the first "S" of our program doesn't just involve getting rid of items we're sure we'll never need. Nor does it mean arranging things on properly aligned shelves. In reality, the first "S" allows us to create a family or work, group or personal environment in which space, time, money, energy, and other resources can be managed and used more effectively.
What happens when we don't classify properly?
- The environment tends to be increasingly cluttered, making work difficult.
- Shelves, drawers and cabinets are used to store unnecessary things.
- Time is wasted searching for what is truly necessary.
- It is expensive to maintain inventories of things that are not useful.
Think for 5 minutes:
What problems occur in your work area or at home due to the accumulation of unnecessary items?
What strategy do we use to put these principles into practice?
What we call the “Red Card Strategy.”
It's a simple method for identifying unnecessary items that, once marked, should be stored somewhere designated for that purpose. This way, and after a predetermined period of time, people tend to be more willing to discard those items that are deemed unnecessary.
Some basic criteria to use in classification are:
The benefits of applying Seiri are concrete:
- Significant reduction in stocks
- Better use of physical spaceDramatic reduction in waste
- Increase in objects transferred and used by other users
- Better use of resources
Before and after examples of applying Seiri in Color Living (Furniture Factory)
| Before | After |
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In our next post, we will continue with the second S of the program: Seiton
Eng. Raúl A. Perez Verzini
International Instructor TPM # 723
Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance.
