Dirt Allergies

Unlike medical allergies, the Lean affliction of Dirt Allergies has no physical component to it. It is simply a condition in which people are extremely reluctant to get hands or clothing dirty.

This condition is most common in leaders who are unwilling to get involved in production processes, or in office workers who don’t like being on the shop floor.

Office Workers

In fairness, some office workers do dress rather nicely and their outfits can be expensive to get cleaned or can be ruined by shop floor dirt. Plus, many of the people who work in offices can go weeks on end without needing to go to the shop floor, if they ever have a need to go there.

But for many, taking trips to production areas is an occasional part of their job. If they are shirking their responsibilities because they don’t want their clothing to get dirty, then they need to start dressing differently, bring in some overalls, or find a different job. Most problems that you will encounter are process problems and not people problems. Worrying about getting dirty is a people problem. Now, your workplace should be as clean as possible, but 5S improvement takes time, and it can be a long haul to create a spotless assembly process. It can take even longer to make your fabrication areas less hostile to textiles. In the meantime, people need to adjust so they can do their jobs properly.

This is especially important when an office team member is on a shop floor kaizen team. Make sure they understand to dress appropriately for excursions to gemba.

Leaders

Most leaders who are in charge of shop floor work areas dress appropriately to be present in the work areas they oversee. The same is true of other workers, such as engineers, that support shop floor areas. That does not mean that they are all willing to get their hands dirty, though.

Sometimes, the only way to truly understand a problem is to experience it. For engineers, it might mean trying to install a part that requires a messy dollop of grease, and for leaders, it might mean trying a process that has been giving a team member a particular challenge. Dirt Allergies keep people from doing what they are supposed to.

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This term should not negate the need to eliminate dirty, dumb, or dangerous work. Coping with reality while you are changing it is necessary.