5S event in Osburn leads to
new power tool charging station

After his shed held a 5S (Sort, Set in Oder, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) event in Osburn to improve organization and efficiency, transportation tech Tyler Carrico fashioned a charging station for cordless power tools.

This simple hack involved old PVC pipe, some paint and a shelf. It holds a variety of tools, their chargers and any accessories like drill bits and screw bits.

The innovation keeps tools and their related parts in a single location, allowing operators in the shed to quickly note which tools are available.

“If you spend just five minutes a day going to the different places these items were located, you would spend 16 hours a year, per person, just grabbing a drill, then grabbing a battery, then putting on the right bit for the job and doing it all in reverse order at the end of the day,” Carrico said.

“That doesn't include time searching for any one of those if they weren't where they ‘usually’ are.”

Carrico was the ITD Maintenance Person of the Year in 2017 and was a member of the department's first class of Emerging Leaders.

 

Published 11-22-19