Marie Kondo – 5S The Powerful Methodology Behind KonMari

Love watching Marie Kondo on her Netflix show, “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.”

If you have not had the pleasure of watching her and how she helps people declutter their homes encouraging them to get rid of the things they don’t need, then organise items that “sparks joy”.

Her simple concept is

Does this bring me joy?
Marie Kondo

She calls her method “KonMari” and based her book about this “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.”

The central Kondo approach is KonMari and if something “Spark joy” in life and this is based around the business manufacturing method 5S which was begun by Toyota Motor Company and then transferred to be used in the home.

What is 5s?

5S is a Japanese system for organising business processes and workspaces to Increase productivity so work can be performed more efficiently, effectively, and safely. There are 5 steps each named after a different term beginning with the letter “S”

The 5 step 5S checklist process:

Seiri – Sort
Seiton – Set in order
Seiso – Shine
Seiketsu – Standardise
Shitsuke – Sustain

Seiri - Sort

This is the decluttering stage or removing all unnecessary items that are not functionally important. Elimination of unnecessary tools, parts, and processes.

Planning – Review designated areas
Categorise – Items used on a daily basis, occasionally or obsolete
Create Space – Dipose of obsolete items no longer used
Create efficiency -Everything should have its place

The benefits of Seiri is when your items are sorted and in order, you save time not having to look for them
“Mottainai” meaning “Don’t waste”, or “Every little thing has a soul”

Seiton - Set in order

Creating a specific location for everything so it has its optimal positions. It is great to quickly find everything you need within easy reach without wasting time trying to locate it. Building a good workflow automation process to improve productivity.

Create a 5S Map – Visual overview of the business processes
Define Work Areas – Where work will be completed
Labelling – signs, labels and colour-coded labels
Ergonomic locations – Easily accessible
Storage – Where items stored, how often used, easy to reach, and not having to move other items.

The most cost-effective principles to improve your business with a multitude of benefits for both team members and the overall business efficiency.

Seiso - Shine

Maintain cleanliness and keep everywhere tidy “to make everything shiny clean” make it a routine practice.

Create time daily for cleaning process
Supervise the daily activity – supervision check and monitoring
Allocate Rolls – Make sure everyone knows what they must do
Identify sources of dirt and formulate prevention plans
Document the processes and layout guidelines and policies

Train your employees to understand the correct cleaning procedures and their responsibilities in the process and why maintaining good standards is important for health and safety.
Provide personal protective safety equipment like gloves and source for the right cleaning tools and products.

Seiketsu - Standardise

This is about process management. set out rules and guidelines to be followed by everyone. Standardise the best practice or standard operating procedures.

Establish standard operating procedures – Enabling systematically repeating the first three steps
Regular Evaluation – checklists and documents available
Make a schedule
Assign responsibility
Conduct regular inspections and evaluations

Shitsuke - Sustain

Daily processes become routine “do without being told” discipline that is reinforced.

Document – Standard Operating Procedure
Create a Checklist – Reinforce steps and
Communication – Explain clearly, add signage and make sure understood why happening
Refinement – Ask for continuous feedback from employees to improve
Evaluation – Analyse performance, results

A powerful tool for sustaining your processes is a checklist. Checklists provide physical evidence of the process management requires for each task. Pointing out the steps that must be completed and can then be proof that the process has been completed to set guidelines so everyone has a clear understanding.

Documentation and checklists encourage consistency providing higher quality results because the work instructions are very clearly set out and steps not missed causing mistakes and errors.

5S methodology is at the heart of what Six Sigma represents reducing waste in a business process.

Marie Kondo How to tell is something "Sparks Joy"

It’s really quite a simple task go through everything you own and hold it tight and decide whether it “sparks joy” in your life. Then discard items that don’t spark joy and then neatly store and organise whatever is left.