A. INTRO
1. When it comes to being disorganized, is it any surprise that paper continues to be one of the biggest problems that plague people at home and at the office? Before organizing (and hopefully filing) those piles of paper sitting on your desk, you’ve got to get your existing filing cabinets ready.
2. Even if your current filing system isn’t bursting at the seams, it’ll still a good idea to sort through and remove any unnecessary papers in order to make room for future storage needs.
3. Super 5S is a systematic approach to keeping an area neat and organized.
4. Originally designed by Toyota, it is now adapted by industries world-wide in both manufacturing and offices settings.
B: Applying the Lean Office Super 5S technique
It has been breaks down into these 5 manageable steps:
1. Sort – Slow and steady is your mantra when doing this step. Start at the front of your drawer and begin to sort through, one file at a time. This might seem too time-consuming for you so use a timer and limit your session to just 15-20 minutes a day. Slow and Steady progress will prevent any type of burn-out, especially if you’re facing a lot of files. Use a brightly coloured piece of paper as a marker in your file drawer so you know where to pick up the next day.
2. Straighten – If your filing cabinet has hanging file folders, chances are you have plastic tabs identifying the file name. Reposition these tabs so they are directly behind one another vs. having them in any type of staggered positioning. Referred to as Straight-line Filing, this actually allows you to find a folder more quickly.
3. Sweep –Take time to “clean-up” as you go. If you’ve got files with broken tabs, replace them now. If some of your manila file folders are tattered or just plain worn out, replace with a new supply that is crisp-looking. (If you use Manila file folders inside hanging files, use Interior Manila files folders as they are designed to completely nest inside a hanging file without sticking up. This makes for a very neat-looking file drawer.)
4. Standardize – Be consistent in how you label your individual files and file drawers. If you’ve got a label maker it will be much easier to create that “standardized” look. Also, file only what is absolutely necessary. If you have the document electronically, do you still need to make a copy for your filing cabinet?
5. Sustain – Keeping your filing cabinet neat, orderly and easy-accessible is the name of the game moving forward. If your filing system is quite extensive, create a File Index in Excel which will allow easy updates. Print this Index and hang it on a clipboard on the side of your filing cabinet so you (and others) can easily reference it when filing items. Keep a supply of 8-10 empty hanging files and Manila file folders in the front of your filing cabinet. This way you’ll have what you need at your fingertips the next time you need to create a new file.
C. How to Set Up an Effective Filing System
1. To create a truly effective filing system, you need to start with a plan.
2. Simply slapping a label on a folder won’t cut it. Don’t worry though; we’re going to set up a filing system that can accommodate any type of paper – home or office.
3. For supplies all you really need are several colours of 2/5 cut tab coloured folders, and some box bottom hanging folders
D. Creating File Categories
1. Look at your current filing system (or that pile of paper that you’ve been meaning to file for months) and start sorting your documents into broad categories.
2. “Outgoing Letter” is one good example for File Category
3. Subcategorizing: Our “Outgoing Letter” file could be divided by a few sub categories such as:
• Outgoing Letter by Client’s name.
• By Year
• Others.
4. Colour Coding:
• Each major category of paperwork should be assigned a different colour (your choice) – and then we’re going to put each of its subcategories into an individual hanging file folder.
• In the example above, “Outgoing Letters” might be green, and each of your accounts gets a separate green file folder.
• It seems like a small thing, but colour-coding your system will save you a huge amount of time in filing and retrieving papers.
• Being able to look in your file drawer and see distinct bodies of information broken out by colour just makes SENSE to your brain.
• When you know that your outgoing letter section is green, your Networking Visit Report (NVR) section is blue and your Minutes of Meeting Record papers are in red, you don’t even have to think because your hand just naturally goes to the right part of your file cabinets.
E. Label Making
1. Now that everyone has their own coloured folder, we need to label each file.
2. When creating your labels, move from general to specific.
3. Don’t sharing our filing paperwork for our “outgoing and received official letters in one file”. Better in different files.
4. Our goal is to keep related files in close proximity to each other.
5. Do this again and again for every grouping of files until you have labelled every file in each major category.
6. I personally use labels because they are neat, easy to read and we can print them from computer.
F. Filling Your Documents
1. All you have to do now is put the files within each major category in alphabetical order, and then put the major categories themselves into the drawer in alphabetical order.
2. Place the coloured folders in hanging box bottom folders to keep them upright in the drawer.
3. The 2/5 cut tabs show above the hanging files, and the tabs are in a straight line for easy reading.
4. Whenever you need to find a document or put something in a folder, just look first for the correct major category (easily identified by both the labels and the colour).
5. With the right filing system it’s easy to put your hands on the correct file without a lot of searching.
G. Latest Technology in Filing System
1. There were two (2) types and methods in Modern Filing System:
i. Hard Copies Filing and Papers.
ii. Soft Copies.
H: How to start your filing system?
1. Cabinet.
Master List divided by a numbering system.
Cabinet Index List
Cabinet Details List.
2. File.
File Master List
File Index List
File Details List
3. Hard Copies File:
Print all Cabinet & File Index List, Detail List and Master in special file.
4. Soft Copies File:
Put at your PC special Icon and/or Folder.
SHARED BY: MKR
No comments:
Post a Comment