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The Japanese 5S' System - Part IV PDF Print E-mail
Written by Namucana Musiwa   
Friday, 26 February 2010 00:00

SEIRI


Last week we discussed the first ‘S’ – Seiri which is Japanese for ‘Sort Out’ and we now continue with this topic.  Seiri means distinguish what you need from what you do not need.  Keep the things you frequently use near and keep the things you seldom use in a different place.  Discard what you do not need.

Have you ever wondered why some people, especially women take too long to get dressed and ready to leave home be it in the morning, afternoon or evening?  For some, it could be that they take their time to bath.  For others it could be indecision in terms of what to wear.  While for others it could be because they take a lot of time making their faces up.  For a good number of people it most likely is failing to find either the shirt or blouse that goes with a particular skirt or pair of trousers or failing to find a tie that goes with a particular shirt or failing to find the jacket or failing to find the other half of the pair of socks.  Sometimes I really wonder if some men do not go around with different socks (half a pair on each foot from two different pairs) since we normally do not see the socks as they are covered by their pairs of trousers!  The reason why this happens is simple.  The average person puts all his or her clothes together unless they cannot fit in the wardrobe or drawers.  You may find, for instance, that you are keeping a dress or short that you have not worn the last five or more years.   For those who gain weight as they grow older, the holding on onto old clothes is in the hope that they might lose weight and be able to wear the piece of clothing again.  I received a picture via e-mail, a few weeks ago, of the former World Bank President (Editor, insert his name here if you can) in which he had taken off his shoes and his toes were peeping through the holes in his socks.  If we were to randomly ask some outstanding male personalities to take off their shoes it may not be surprising to find some of them wearing torn socks.  We do not seem to have the culture to easily get rid of things that have outlived their usefulness.  Some people will hold on to underwear that has lost its elasticity even if they can no longer use it.  Some people will actually ‘donate’ to the so called poor, clothes that are torn and worn out instead of just burning them.

Many a dressing table is crowded with empty bottles of perfume, aftershave cologne, sprays, lotion and hair cream.  Bathrooms are full of empty packets of assortments of cleaning detergents and air freshners.  Kitchens and pantries are full of empty tins and packets of food, beverages, spices, cereals and all sorts of things.  I know a person who makes tea and puts it in an empty bottle of brandy to make it look like brandy and then place it in a display cabinet or at the bar.  Do you remember the time in Zambia when we used to produce tip top, tarino and kwench?  Those with relatives and friends at QZ or with foreign exchange to buy drinks from duty free shops would after taking canned coke, sprite or fanta mount it on top of the window pelmets in their living rooms.  What a life?

Some families have kept Christmas cards for the last twenty Chrismases and take them out every year to decorate their homes.  Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with keeping old Christmas cards from relative and friends especially if they are now departed.  There is sentimental value attached to certain things.  You can hold on, for instance to a dress or shirt passed on to you by your late grandmother or grandfather.  I for one keep postcards, Christmas cards, birthday cards and letters from friends and relatives who are close to my heart – both the living and the dead.  Some families pass on finger rings and neck chains from generation to generation – that is perfectly alright.  The trouble is, how many things should you hold on to?  Especially with the rate at which people are dying?

My grandmother Namucana Nambao, was a person who liked holding on to things hardly using them or giving them away.  She kept a trunk full of clothes that appeared new for years on end.  She would literally have to be forced to wear them on special occasions.  I remember, my sister Ngula once going through grandmother’s trunk and finding a few clothes from the sixties that had come back in fashion and she insisted that granny gives them to her and she did.  When she wore them nobody seemed to suspect that they were from the sixties.  My mother is another such person who holds on to things more out of care than preservation for its own sake.  She can use one bottle of perfume for as long as two years.  She can also keep a dress for ten years and still manage to keep it in good shape.

Seiri means sort out.  Distinguish what you need from what you do not need.  Make a decision on what you are going to do about the things you do not need.  Keep the things you use frequently, near.  Have a different place for the things you seldom use.  Peart Siwale once told us that, if you have not touched something that is yours for five years, you probably do not need it.  Put it in the archives, give it away or throw it away.   After a session on Seiri, I went home and opened all the boxes of packed things in the house that we had come with from Lusaka when we had moved to Kitwe.  I was shocked to discover that we had carried a lot of junk which we now had to discard.  Most of us feel uncomfortable and indecisive about throwing things away.  We fear that we may throw away something that we might need in the future and we therefore hold on to junk.  A car will keep breaking down and instead of disposing of it you will keep spending money on repairs in the hope that it will be perfect again.

Driving in London last October, I wondered why I could hardly see ‘ichisasa’ (a wreck) and my aunt told me that every three to five years when there are new models of vehicles, individuals trade their old cars for new ones as a policy.  It is also common to find our colleagues in Western countries changing furniture and household equipment periodically.  As for us, we even boast that the settee has been in the family for the last twenty years. 

Some people even try to fix an electric jug when it is damaged, instead of  buying a new one.  Most of those who buy new jugs and kettles find a place in the kitchen or pantry to keep the damaged one that will just be a breeding ground for cockroaches.  It took me a while to realize that it is cheaper to buy a new pressing iron than attempt to fix a faulty one unless of course you are just replacing a fuse or changing the top plug.  You will be lucky to find an electrician who can advise you that you cannot fix certain jugs, kettles and irons.  The same can be said about some desk jet and ink jet printers especially the smaller types.

One of the challenges we face as a nation is that it is not even clear where you can dump certain things when they have outlived their usefulness.  It is easy to get rid of cloth and paper but what do you do with electronic items and things like pots that will not easily rot or decay?

For you to be better organized as an individual or as an organisation, seiri is something you must do not as a one-off activity but on a regular basis.  At Boart Longyear we declared every second Friday a seiri day and would sort out stuff in our offices, stores and workshops.  The exercise helped us find things that had been misplaced and parts of machines that had become obsolete.  We then decided what we could do with whatever we did not need.  Seiri helps you create space and fresh air in a room.  Next week we shall discuss the second “S’ – Seiton.  Keep on reading.
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