Visual Instructions / 5S Model Building Exercise

5S and Visual Controls are proven methods for improving the effectiveness of a team, 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. The teams with the visual instructions invariably finish their build with higher quality in a shorter 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 that details how to run this exercise. 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.

Give Your Team Their "Aha!" Moment

Seeing is believing for most people. So telling them how a visual workplace can make them more effective while making their job easier 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 resources so the improvement keeps going 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 finished 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 training system, you can add additional components to your training so your team can get the most out of their time. Hand out our Free Lean term on 5S, give them access to our DVD series, and use our PowerPoint presentations to provide instruction.

Expansion Packs

Our expansion packs contain one extra model of each type, brining the total number of models in the kit to 6.

Spare Parts Kits

A spare parts kit contains several of the frequently lost small parts.