The actual "Garage"

A man's house is his castle as the saying goes. I do beg to differ though. If your married like I am it's more like the basement or the garage is the castle. The house in reality belongs to the woman. Perhaps thats a bit stereotypical but let's face it when is the last time you were able to hang a favorite pinup picture or a cool poster of a 911 Turbo on your bedroom wall? I thought so. What's left? The basement or garage right? Well at least that's where I stand. My damp and musty basement is my computer repair hang out and my unheated, leaky roofed, broken window, paint peeling over stuffed garage are my domain. The garage is going to be the focus of this article. What has inspired this is a class I'm taking currently on Lean Manufacturing. More specifically what is called the 5S's which are Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. This part of the lean manufacturing system developed by the Japanese. A leader of this system is Toyota.

A first steps in this process is to:

• Document the existing conditions.
• Do a work area checklist.
• Take photo's before work has begun.
• Put up a display board with checklists, photo's and etc. documenting the project.
• Train personnel.

To document existing conditions I did take some photo's and did area scan worksheet(provided by my instructor). On my worksheet I scored an embarrassing but not surprising 18 out of 100 points. Here are some of the photo's:



This one is looking from the entrance from what is considered my side of the garage. I have a hand me down work bench. A Craftsman toolchest, gallons of used motor oil, old useless computer stuff and other assorted clutter.





As you can see that I've got my work cut out for me. Right hand side is filled with clutter from when our stuff was in storage for awhile(another story) which will have to be sorted through. I use the garage is used by my car but also for basic car care and the sort. My goal is to make it an efficient garage that I'm not embarrassed by. Also to show that the 5S system can also be done at home too. I will post more as the project moves along with what I hope are weekly updates as my schedule permits. Enjoy!