Looking for stuff—whether it be keys, wallet, phone, meeting notes, spices in a kitchen cabinet, or pencils in my woodworking shop—is the bane of my existence. Some days, I feel as if I spend more time looking for stuff than I do actually using the stuff I was looking for. It’s a problem.
Of course, I’m not alone in that regard. Manufacturers large and small grapple with that problem on a daily basis. “Looking for stuff” is a form of wasted motion, one of the seven wastes of lean manufacturing, and preventing it is one of the goals behind 5S programs.