5S / Visual Instructions Model Building Exercise

5S and Visual Controls are proven methods for improving team effectiveness while making their jobs easier. Surprisingly, though, there can be substantial resistance to making a workplace more visual and standardized.

This exercise is intended to help teams get to the 'Aha!' moment in a fun and engaging way. Two different types of instructions are used in this exercise. One version contains written instructions in paragraph form. The other shows step-by-step visual instructions. Teams with visual instructions invariably finish their builds with higher quality in less time. After the exercise, teams need little convincing to embrace 5S and Visual Management.

In addition to the brick models and instructions for 4 small groups of 2-4 people each, this exercise includes a step-by-step Leader's guide detailing how to run it. It also contains discussion points to help reinforce the lessons learned.

Make your training more enjoyable and more effective by adding our Visual Controls and 5S Lean Building Brick Exercise to your training library.

REVIEW THE OVERVIEW FROM THE AVAILABLE ONLINE LEADER'S GUIDE.

Give Your Team Their "Aha!" Moment

Seeing is believing for most people. So telling them how a visual workplace can make them more effective and easier to do their jobs is not enough. You have to show them. And our 5S and Visual Management Lean Building Brick Training Exercise provides you with an opportunity to do just that.

If you want your team to embrace 5S and Visual Management, help them have an 'Aha!' moment with our Lean Building Brick training exercise. When they see how dramatic the difference in results is depending on whether they used written or visual instructions, your convincing will be done for you.

What You Get in this 5S/Visual Management Training

Included in this exercise are four bins containing model carts, a Leader's guide describing how to conduct the exercise, two visual instruction booklets, and two paragraph-format instruction booklets.

Plus, the training is backed by our extensive online companion options, so the improvement continues long after the training is done.

Exercise Flow

1. Provide trainees with background information.
2. Break into small groups of 2-4 people.
3. Hand out model kits and instructions to each team. Note that some teams will receive written instructions and others will receive visual instructions.
4. Have teams build the carts.
5. Teams with images will finish well ahead of other teams.
6. Do the 'Big Reveal' and show the trainees both sets of instructions.
7. Discuss the key learnings.

Lean Training Big Picture

Because this Lean Building Brick Training Exercise is a part of our overall training system, you can add additional companion products to your training library so your team can get the most out of their time. Visit Continuous Improvement Central to learn about your training options.

Expansion Packs

Our expansion packs contain one extra model of each type, bringing the total number of models in the kit to 6. (Sold separately)

Spare Parts Kits

A spare parts kit contains several of the frequently lost small parts. (Sold separately)

Learn More in Our Online Guide

This building brick is designed to be used as a stand-alone product in a classroom setting. We also offer an online training and resource platform to help you develop a top-tier continuous improvement culture and business management system.

While it is not included in this building brick training, it is an outstanding companion to it. In fact, we offer the leader's guide in our training platform as part of our Leader and Transformation Toolkits. It lets you prepare for training even without access to the kit.

Check out the preview (free) lessons at CI Central.

Downloads and Additional Training

This kit contains no digital content. It does, however, have a great companion tool in our Continuous Improvement Central training platform. There, you can find a wealth of additional training and resources to take your training even further.