5S:Standardize: Set Standards to Maintain
Definition of STANDARDIZE (Seiketsu) – Set expectations for maintaining the cleaned space. Make the rules, follow the rules and enforce the rules.
Standardize incorporates a set of expectations with visual management to maintain the clean workplace that you have established. What does that all mean? First, your team needs to set expectations for how your space is to be arranged (Simplify), how it is to be maintained (Sweep) and how you will be able to maintain that for the future. Think of it as standard operating procedures for maintaining your workspace.
Based on that, what items do you need to standardize? For example, let’s think about your nursing unit’s clean utility room. You regularly have supplies being ordered, supplies being stocked, and supplies being used. Do you have a standard layout? Do you have a standard process for when or how items are ordered? Or when and how they are stocked? And wouldn’t it be great if you set up your clean utility room on all nursing units so float staff can easily find items no matter what unit they are on, because the system was standardized. That is a system that would improve efficiency across all nursing units and make it easier for staff who float.
To make that happen, the group of workers who use the space need to agree on the standards and expectations of the space. Standardizing the clean utility room will affect those who order supplies, those who stock supplies and those who use supplies. All of those folks need to be involved in the standardization of the process and the room layout. For example, if you don’t have input from the folks who stock your supplies, they won’t know how or where they should stock the items you ordered. Inclusion of all involved in the planning helps to ensure that the new system will be followed after set-up.
Create the space with visual cues so that any staff member can tell if something is out of place. If a piece of equipment is missing from its standard location, you know it is either being used, or someone didn’t put it back in its designated spot. Consider the amount of supplies being ordered and how the supply chain functions in your hospital so that supplies are always available as needed but aren’t piled up. Expired supplies are dangerous from a patient care, a regulatory, and risk management perspective. They also affect your bottom line.
Finally, make sure that all staff that use the space are trained in the processes that you have put in place to maintain the space. Everyone needs to be accountable for maintaining the space but they need to know how to do that.
Remember that the goal of standardizing is to make the workspace more efficient for all who work in the area.
How can you apply this concept to your workplace?
© 2020 Nancy Koftan. All rights reserved.