‘6S’ your way to success

Published March 11, 2009
By Senior Airman Bekah Phy
87th Air Base Wing public affairs

McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- With spring just around the corner, there's no better time for some spring cleaning.

McGuire's Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century office recently teamed up with McGuire members to conduct some "spring cleaning" around the base. The initiative known as 6S - sort, straighten, scrub, standardize, sustain and safety - helped dorm residents and maintenance personnel get more organized.

"The 6S project is basically an organizational process for anything," said 1st Lt. Matt Bader, AFSO 21 OIC and 6S project lead. "... The goal is to get better work out of people who have better things to work with."

The first project the AFSO 21 office took on with 6S participants was the bay orderly closets in the dormitories. Each of five dorms has a closet, which holds supplies for Airmen living in the dorms. Unfortunately, the supplies were out of control with no organization - there was an excess of supplies with no organized system, said Tech. Sgt. Angela Bergerstock, 87th Civil Engineer Squadron unaccompanied housing manager NCO in charge and 6S participant.

With overall concern for the appearance of dorms, they got to work with the 6S project.

The team went through each "S" step to organize the bay orderly closets. Now, each item in the closet has a place, which is labeled. A checklist is also available, which includes all of the supplies they need and the amount of each. This visual recognition makes it easy for Airmen conducting inventories of supplies - they can immediately see what's there and what's needed.

"This process was hugely helpful to the dorm residents," Sergeant Bergerstock said. "If the equipment in the supply area is unbearable, what's the task going to be like?"

The 6S event in Bldg. 1801 -- a maintenance hangar - seems to be successful so far as well. Although the project is still in progress, to date the team has cleaned out one area in the hangar and reclaimed space for others to use.

In addition, the group disposed of more than 300 unused items - a value of $120,000, said Tech. Sgt. Randy Pembleton, 305th Maintenance Group quality assurance inspector and 6S participant. Other benefits included energy savings, since they also identified and fixed energy leaks in the building.

"This is a continuous improvement issue, but it's a great start," Sergeant Pembleton said. "We hope it will expand to other areas."

To continue the spring cleaning efforts and get help reorganizing your space, call Lieutenant Bader at the AFSO 21 office at (609) 754-0468.