Why I Hate Shadowboards

Somehow shadowboards have become the badge of Lean. A shadowboard symbolizes 5S to many. It is hard to find a class on Lean that does not show a shadowboard on a slide describing workplace organization.

But I hate them. OK, hate is a little strong, and I don’t even dislike them everywhere. They are fine in tool rooms and maintenance shops. But in production areas, they represent waste, not efficiency. On the surface, they look good, but when you watch the flow around them, they are full of muda.

• It is hard to believe that all the tools in a process are needed at exactly the same point. Shadowboards add either walking or reaching to a process. Or they are not used during production, and simply create an extra step to put tools away at the end of the day.
• Shadowboards are almost invariably organized by size of the tool. Most processes aren’t designed to use tools in size order. Shadowboards, therefore, require decisions, which adds an unnecessary burden to an operator.
• Shadowboards are a pain to adjust. When a process changes, shadowboards don’t. The need to swap tool locations gets batched until there are several changes in the queue. Then they are all done at once.
• Shadowboards make tools hard to grab. They are not stored in a way that makes them easy to use immediately, so there is the grab-flip move that adds time and occasionally causes a tool to drop.
• Shadowboards are hard to put tools into. Not ‘brain surgery hard’, but ‘add a half second hard’. And that adds up over time. Think of all the times tools are grabbed in the course of a year and multiply that out by half a second each.

So, try adhering to these tool rules and see if a shadowboard still seems like a good idea.

1. Never have a tool more than a step from where it is needed.
2. Make sure a tool is easy to grasp and is oriented for immediate use in a single movement.
3. Make sure tools are always organized in the sequence in which they are used. Take decision making out of the process.
4. Make sure operators can efficiently return tools to their storage location when not in use. Operators should be able to put the tool away 5 times in a row with their eyes closed. (If they can do that, think how easy it will be to do with their eyes opened.)
5. Use multiple tools to adhere to rule 1. Walking 5 seconds to get a tool and 5 seconds to return it 20 times a day is over 17 minutes of walking a week and almost 14 hours a year. Does it make sense to avoid buying a second (or third, or fourth) hand tool to save $5 and add all that labor cost?

Try this easy alternative to a shadowboard. Use a block of wood with a cone-shaped hole to hold a screwdriver. Make a tapered slot for a wench or side-cutters or pliers. Zip tie the block near where the tool is needed. Once you find the perfect spot and work out the bugs in the sequencing, improve the block and the mount. Repeat.

So what do you think? Do you like shadowboards, or do you agree with me that they are the muda wolf in sheep’s clothing?