If we want Lean Manufacturing practices to become more common, we should start teaching them at an early age. What are we actually learning?
5S (Sorting, Straightening, Shining, Standardizing, and Sustaining). Kids do learn early how to keep their area clean, clean up their own mess and put things back in their proper place. My kids’ early grade classes had shelves carefully labeled to help students remember where things belonged and students had to return materials back to their place after completing a project. Excellent 5S practice.
Make to Order. We are definitely teaching kids this lesson. My kids will NOT do any studying or homework in advance even when they know what is due next week. They understand that there is no sense in having a buffer of homework inventory that could go to waste if the teacher decides to change plans, skip a chapter or do them out of order. I have to agree with Just-In-Time homework.
Visual Work Instructions. I feel that we are failing in this area. We hugely depend on the teachers to demonstrate the proper way of doing things and we don’t necessarily provide good visual work instructions. Would the kids follow the instructions if they were provided? Perhaps if we started this habit young, we would read those instructions manual later in life.
Work Cells. We do not practice the concept of work cells or assembly lines in school. Each student usually does their own project from start to finish craftsman style. We see a few team projects in later grades but workload is hardly ever balanced. They might get to feel the efficiency of an assembly line at lunch, but many schools don’t have cafeteria style anymore.
Elimination of Time and Material Waste. We do pretty well in this area in early grades. Students spend the entire school day in one classroom including nap time. Materials are very efficiently used since they are in short supply in school these days. But in later grades we become more wasteful. Someone decided that it is more efficient to move hundreds of students with full backpacks from class to class rather than move a few teachers around. We could set better examples at school of avoiding wasteful movement of inventory, tools and work-in-progress. Instead we learn that standing in line for half of the lunch time is normal and an expected part of life.
Are kids learning enough Lean know-how? Could they? Perhaps we will have to practice more at home... perhaps a hamburger work cell tonight : )
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