PARANOIA

Via Dan Curtis Johnson of the Traitor Recycling Studio, this October 27, 2008 Wall Street Journal article by the delightfully named Julie Jargon, titled "Neatness Counts at Kyocera and at Others in the 5S Club":

SAN DIEGO -- Jay Scovie thought he knew how to deal with the latest mandate from corporate: He swept the clutter from his messy desk into boxes and tossed them in a closet.

But the 5S cop was on to him.

5S is a key concept of the lean manufacturing techniques that have made makers of everything from cars to candy bars more efficient. The S's stand for sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain. Lately, 5S has been moving from the plant floor to the cubicle at hundreds of offices around the country, adding desk cleaning to the growing list of demands on employees.

That means companies like Kyocera Corp., Mr. Scovie's employer, are patrolling to make sure that workers don't, for example, put knickknacks on file cabinets. To impress visitors, the company wants everything to be clean and neat. [...]

The North American headquarters of Kyocera, a manufacturer of solar panels, copy machines and ceramic knives, adopted 5S in April at the behest of its Japanese parent.

It wasn't long before Dan Brown, Kyocera's newly appointed 5S inspector, started asking Mr. Scovie, the office's communications manager, about his boxes. "It became a repeated topic of conversation," says Mr. Scovie, who eventually broke down and went through his stuff. He says he found things he had forgotten he had, including instructional videos on how to install solar panels. [...]

Kyocera's version of 5S, which it calls "Perfect 5S," not only calls for organization in the workplace, but aesthetic uniformity. Sweaters can't hang on the backs of chairs, personal items can't be stowed beneath desks and the only decorations allowed on cabinets are official company plaques or certificates.

While that may sound authoritarian, it's not the initiative that's important, it's how managers communicate it, says Gary Hayes, managing partner at Hayes Brunswick & Partners LLC, a leadership advisory firm in Bronxville, N.Y. "If managers clearly explain why they're doing something, I think most people will understand the rationale. But if you say, 'We're doing this because 14 efficiency experts say it increases productivity,' then it becomes kind of Dilbert," he says....

As Dan remarks, "If it seems authoritarian, it's because it was not explained to you correctly. Please turn in your boss so he can be taught how to better explain things to you."

Labels: hygiene