Organize for Use

by Hal on July 19, 2005

in lean

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When we go about organizing anything we often follow unexamined rules. We might collect items by size, color, materials, style, and type. Notice that all these are characteristics of the items. When we organize tools this way we see pliers of different sizes, socket sets by metric, SAE, and standard, and screwdrivers all ordered small to large. This approach makes things easy to find. The lean approach is different: organize for use.

Joe Ely offers his everyday lean example Right-Sizing Tools where he has organized a variety of tools for a single purpose. There is no finding tools in this approach. Set-up is quick. A variation on this approach is to have tools ready for use. Here are two examples: chuck keys are attached to the power cord of the drill and Allen wrenches are attached to the casing of the jig saw.

What would be examples of organizing for use for managing projects?

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