Have you heard of something called “lean manufacturing”? It is a method used in businesses to minimize the total cost of the system without sacrificing quality. That sounds so logical, right? And it doesn’t just work in manufacturing. Any business can benefit from Lean. That doesn’t stop companies from NOT 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 areas of work. Waste is any time, movement, or things that are not used directly to get your product into the hands of a paying customer exactly when they need it, not before or after. If you think about that for a second, you’ll realize that it’s 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 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, Tidying up, sweep up the clutter, standardizingand Nutritious. See? Five words beginning with “S”. If you implement a 5S program in your home recording studio (or any other workplace), you’ll find that your workflow will be much faster, your tasks will get done sooner, and you’ll spend less money. As I describe this, it will seem like all we’re doing is “getting organized,” which always sounds like a good idea, right? But what is the GOAL of “getting organized”. The goal of 5S is to reduce waste so that your product and processes can flow better and faster without reducing quality (quality actually increases!).
Classification – Pick up every little thing in your home recording studio and decide if it belongs in the studio. If you have to think EVEN 5 seconds, place it outside the room in a taped off area (use red tape) or in a red bin (or 2). Those things will stay out of the study for 30 days. If you don’t have to go retrieve something in that time, you should store it somewhere else.
Tidying up – presumably you now only have the stuff you need to produce audio in your studio. The next step is to establish a permanent place for all of that stuff. Labeling locations can really help here, especially if things are in drawers or on shelves. Pay special attention in this step to optimizing the location of the tools and equipment you use every day. For example, since movement is wasteful, try to set everything up so that you can reach it from where you’re sitting without having to get up or move your chair. For example, I set things up, my mic preamps, mixer, interfaces, effects, keyboard, microphone, computer, software, blank CDs, and reference manuals in a “U” shape starting to the left of where my chair is. and circling in a semicircle in front of me. I can reach all of these things without moving from my chair. Trust me, THIS is worth the effort.
sweep up the clutter – This is to make sure you put things away when you’re done with them, otherwise they won’t be there when you need them and you’ll waste time (we don’t WANT to waste) looking for them.
standardizing – If you have more than one person working with you in the studio, this is more important. Everyone should have the same procedures and practices to maintain consistency. Someone needs to be responsible for making sure that your procedures and your workspace continue to support each other. For most home studio fans, that’s up to you.
Holding the 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 where it belongs. But as you get busier and busier, this will become more and more difficult. If you don’t have a process in place to maintain your 5S studio, it will collapse. Entropy will prevail. This is probably the hardest part of 5S.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab some labeling tape, some red bins (or duct tape), and get to work. You will be very, very glad you did. Trust me on this.