Used to be there was always an 'old guy' who worked everywhere, who knew all of the machinery, and the switches, and could tell the new guys all about it.
Now, he's retired to Florida, and all the new guys have moved on to more financially lucrative jobs elsewhere. And all those stories the 'old guy' told have gone with them.
That's why we need labels and cautions on everything. Because there aren't any 'old guys' to tell you what's what.
Has anyone ever heard of whirling through your place of work and "5S"ing it? Stands for Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. Even though someone in this country wrote about the principles, Japan was the country that took those lessons to heart-- label everything, organize everything. Now we're realizing those are good ideas!
5S:
Sort - Basic idea is that you go through everything and throw out all those things you've been meaning to;
Set in Order - organize your workplace-- "a place for everything and everything in its place--" including labeling positions on the tool rack, making a tape border on the floor for 'do not park stuff here,' etc.;
Shine - Take care of housekeeping- don't let the dust bunnies turn into gorillas;
Standardize - perform the same job the same way all the time
Sustain - Don't let things get disorganized again!
The first S is Sort-- which includes trashing what should be trashed. I added a caveat where I work-- it's not junk until I say it's junk! I think I'm the 'old guy.' When someone can't identify something, the tendency is to call it junk and toss it. In many cases, I can tell them what the part came from, and why it's not junk.
There's also a tendency to toss out old manuals for equipment! I believe that if we have a piece of equipment, anywhere in the company, we don't toss out the manual! Sometimes even The Internet doesn't have a copy of the manual!
