Have you heard of something called “lean manufacturing”? It is a method used in business to minimize the total cost of the system without sacrificing quality. Sounds so logical, right? And it doesn’t just work in manufacturing. Any business can benefit from Lean. That doesn’t stop companies from doing it. I think this is partly due to how we define the word “waste.” Lean is completely focused on reducing and eliminating waste in all processes and work areas. Waste is any time, movement or material that is not directly used to get your product into the hands of a customer who pays exactly when they need it, not before or after. If you think about it for a second, you will realize that it is impossible to totally eliminate waste! If a worker sneezes, that is a movement that is not directed at the task. I think it’s the idea that with lean, you’re striving for something that you can never achieve that makes it hard to swallow, at least for Western companies.
Anyway, what is 5S? I’m glad you asked … since that’s what the article is supposed to be about. What represents: Classification, Tidy, Sweeping up the clutter, Standardization, and Nutritious. Watch? Five words that start with “S” If you implement a 5S program in your home recording studio (or any other workplace), you will find that your workflow will be much faster, your tasks will be done sooner and you will spend less money. As I describe this, it will appear that all we are doing is “getting organized”, which always sounds like a good idea, right? But what is the OBJECTIVE of “getting organized”. The goal of 5S is to reduce waste so your product and processes can flow better and faster without reducing quality (quality really goes up!).
Classification – Collect every detail from your home recording studio and decide if it belongs to the studio. If you have to think EVEN 5 seconds, put it out of the room in an area with duct tape (use red tape) or in a red container (or 2). That material will remain outside the studio for 30 days. If in that time you don’t have to go to retrieve something, you should keep it somewhere else.
Tidy – presumably now you only have what you need to produce audio in your studio. The next step is to establish a permanent place for all those things. Labeling locations can help a lot here, especially if there are things in drawers or shelves. Pay particular attention in this step to optimizing the placement of the tools and equipment you use every day. For example, since movement is wasteful, try setting everything up so that you can reach it from where you are sitting without having to get up or move your chair. For example, I set up my mic preamps, mixer, interfaces, effects, keyboard, mic, computer, software, blank CDs, and reference manuals in a “U” shape starting to the left of where my chair sits, and circling around. semicircle in front of me. I can achieve all of these things without getting up from my chair. Believe me, THIS is worth the effort.
Sweeping up the clutter – This is to make sure you put things away when you’re done, otherwise they won’t be there when you need them and you’ll waste time (we don’t WANT to waste) looking for them.
Standardization – If you have more than one person working in the studio with you, this is more important. Everyone should have the same procedures and practices to maintain consistency. Someone should be responsible for making sure your procedures and your workspace continue to support each other. For most home studio fans, that’s up to you.
Sustain discipline – Once everything is in place, you will be so happy with your new workplace that it will be easy, for a few weeks, to keep everything in place. But as you get busier and busier, this will get harder and harder. If you don’t have a process to maintain your 5S study, you will fall apart. Entropy will prevail. This is probably the hardest part of 5S.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab some labeling tape, some red containers (or duct tape), and get to work. You will be very, very glad you did. Trust me on this.
