Sub Stories come from my six years in the US Navy and in particular the four years I served as a nuclear qualified sub mariner. The Navy arguably gave me much in terms of technical training, experience and self confidence. But as I discovered recently when I volunteered to assist as a tour guide for the USS Blueback, now a floating museum, there are skeletons in my closet.
These are stories, both the good and not so good from that time, and the meaning I make from them.
5S is one of the key practices of the Toyota Production System. The 5 “S’s” derive from five Japanese words which when romanized, begin with the letter ‘S’: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke.
The Japanese word Seiso translates to cleanliness. There is no doubt that cleanliness of a workspace can contribute to efficiency, safety and a positive work environment (see the broken window theory). But substituting “shine” for Seiso because it is an English word which begins with the letter ‘S’, risks a literal interpretation which results in none of those outcomes. A good example of taking “shine” too literally comes from my Navy experience and in particular, the use of Epoxy-Polyamide paint.
