Yesterday I was facilitating a 6S (Safety is the extra S) workshop in Cleveland for a small plant that stamps parts that go into autos.  That's a crummy business to be in right now, so I give them credit for doing the training while they're not so busy.

I've always contended that 5S (or 6S) is a great place to start a lean project because it hooks into so many lean concepts. Yesterday's workshop was a great example of that.  We got into error-proofing, inventory control, visual factory, flow, a bit of operator maintenance and of course, good ol' workplace organization. 

The error proofing and inventory control were especially interesting.  I've got to run right now, but tune in tomorrow to get more detail.