The Spice-Box Management

A Spice box that is used by the master chefs of our homes brings us delicious homemade food, it also brings us powerful management concepts like 5S and Full Kitting. Is it hard to relate?.. Let us move on.

Basically, the spice box is a container that has all the exotic herbs and spices needed for Indian cooking. One can commonly find spices such as cardamom, clove, cumin, fenugreek, black pepper, coriander, mustard seeds in each of the compartments of the spice box. It comes in handy when it is needed and using this makes the cooking process simpler, faster. Indian Cooking is so delegate and the proportions of ingredients play a vital role, hence the homemakers of India have figured out a standard way of accessing these spices quickly and effortlessly whenever they need. An ancient system of implementing something very similar to 5S. 5S movement began as a part of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and widely adopted in the Japanese Lean Management toolkit. The term 5S comes from five Japanese words often translated in English as :

• Seiri (整理)-Sort
• Seiton (整頓) -Set in Order
• Seiso (清掃)-Shine
• Seiketsu (清潔)-Standardize
• Shitsuke (躾)-Sustain

5S enables organizing a workspace for improved efficiency and effectiveness in decision making. This starts with identifying and storing the various things to be used in performing work, maintaining the area well, and sustaining new improved standards. 

There is another powerful concept adapted in accordance to Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints”. Full Kitting(FK) is front-loading all the prerequisites that are needed to perform a task. Typically in an automobile assembly line implementing FK means providing all the parts and components necessary to produce a product at the edge of the assembly line. Often given the sensitivity of timing in operations the transportation of parts and components (“kits”) are done with AGV’s – automatically guided vehicles.

In projects, according to CCPM, there are two levels of Full kitting

1. PLFK: Project Level Full Kit
2. TLFK: Task Level Full Kit

Sometimes, projects are started with full enthusiasm without realizing that few of the necessary prerequisites are not ready. In such scenarios, the resources are already committed, and due to the lack of the component, neither that project progress nor the resources made available for another project. In some other instances, a $50 million worth project gets stalled due to the non-availability of $5 components or permit or license. Full kitting in projects address these situations. A project (in the case of PLFK) or task (in the case of TLFK)  does not start until all the necessary prerequisites are ready to perform the task completely.

These concepts bring in speed in execution, uninterrupted flow of work as well as improve the decision-making capabilities. The bottom line of both concepts is “No Surprises” while performing tasks. Little that we realize these great modern management concepts have ingrained in our ancient practices and culture such as “Spicebox” even before the management fraternity has coined a name for this.

If you find a similar practice that can be related to management concepts, please comment.