Work Centre Design - Change Table

With Monkey transitioned to her big girl room and the nursery still intact, there was little to do to get ready for Baby Bear's arrival.  In the spirit of  continuous improvement, there was one area of the room that felt inefficient, the changing station.

The changing station - table, mat, shelf, whatever the physical manifestation - is a classic example of a work cell.  An area specifically designed to perform work of a similar nature.  There are many work cells in your home.  The working triangle of you kitchen is used to produce meals.  The vanity in the bathroom is used for personal hygiene.  The busiest work cell in your home is likely your entry way or mud room, housing everything you need to get out the door.

At a changing station, the product is a clean and dry bum, securely covered in a clean and dry diaper. Emphasis on securely.  The process requires speed, agility and needs to be completed primarily with one hand.  The non-working hand used to secure the baby.  Repeat, one hand on the baby at all times.

When we started out, the cell looked like this.

It really wasn't ideal for a few reason;

1. The work surface was crowded.  It was also serving as an end table and held an assortment of books, toys, a clock and a small lamp.  All items not related to diaper changing.
2. The garbage pail is across the room from the baby.  In order to keep one hand on the baby at all times, you had to find a place (on an already crowded table) to put a pile of dirty wipes.
3. You had to walk to the bathroom and back twice.  First to flush the biodegradable liner down the toilet (we cloth diaper), then back to put the dirty diaper in the pail, then out again to wash your hands and back again to finish dressing the baby.

The Toyota Production System has a focus on neatness.  Disorder hides problems; it makes work harder.  Workplace organization begins with 5S.

Sort

Straighten

Shine

Standardize

Sustain

SORT

To begin, I removed anything that wasn't related to changing a diaper.  The books, toys, lamp, clock, water bottle all found a new home. This left me with the essentials: wipes, cloths, cream, diapers, trash can, laundry bin, change pad.  Once I had eliminated things that weren't required, I found more space for things that were.  The laundry bin and trash can could all be moved within arms reach.

STRAIGHTEN

Next, I looked at the layout of the change table.  Both my partner and I are right handed, so I made the right hand side of the table the working side and kept all tools and supplies there.

A word of caution - do not place the working side towards you.

If you choose not to heed this caution, this could happen to you:

Yup.  That's me.  With baby poop down my front.  Live and learn, right?

Here's the new layout:

The trash can is now on a shelf in easy reach and below it the laundry bin.  Wet clothes can be removed and immediately put into the laundry bin.  Wipes, creams, cloths and clean diapers all have a home in easy reach.

You may notice the diaper pail is missing.  This is not because we switched to disposable diapers for baby number 2.  It's because I moved it to the bathroom, near the flushing toilet and running water.  No more walking back and forth, to and from the bathroom, carrying dirty diapers.

These simple changes improved efficiency in two ways.  First, it reduced the excess movement, primarily back and forth to the bathroom but also across the room to the trash and laundry.  Second, the efficiency came from not double handling material like laundry and dirty diapers.  They could be disposed of immediately instead of collecting it in one place and then moving them again for disposal.

SHINE

I could say I gave the shelves a thorough cleaning, wiped down the trash can, disinfected the diaper pail.  But who are we kidding, I went over everything with a Swiffer cloth and called it a day.

STANDARDIZE and SUSTAIN

With everything newly arranged, I brought in the team (my partner and Monkey, the dutiful big sister) and showed them around.  Everyone knows that only diaper changing stuff goes in this area, and which bin is for which supply.

Two months in and things are still in their place.

Until next time,

Kaizen your Life.

Wayback Wednesday - The Importance of Ease

I know... it's Thursday.  Late Thursday.  This should have been posted yesterday, but let's pretend it's still Wednesday.

Welcome back to Wayback Wednesday, the day we look back in time at the works of Christine Frederick and other pioneers in home economics.

In New Housekeeping: Efficiency Studies in Home Management, Frederick performs an in-depth review of the ergonomics of washing dishes.  From the height of the sink, to the placement of the tools, to the specific motions of each hand.  The idea being that for work to be performed optimally, it needs to be done with ease.  Physical straining cause by poor ergonomics makes work harder.

Included in her study was a table showing what the proper work surface height should be for people of various heights.

Frederick noticed that many of the working surfaces in her home were not optimized for her height.  This meant that every task she performed was taking more effort than it needed to.  She also tried to ensure that tasks didn't require any unnecessary bending or lifting.  All of these are modern elements of ergonomics for work centre design.

To calculate the correct working surface height, Frederick provided a table and a formula.  I've converted it to a graph here for ease of use.

Ironing is one task that Frederick's suggests would benefit from a proper work surface.  Not only height, but also sturdiness.  She writes;

"In ironing, I found that my boards just like the sink, was not at the right height. It was so high that I couldn't obtain enough purchase on my iron without extra effort. I simply lowered the board, made it very steady, and thus helped my efficiency." (Frederick 1912)

I decided to put her principle of a proper work surface height into practice when I did the ironing this week.  This was a qualitative study, I really should have measured the time it took to iron a shirt with each working surface height.  I might recreate it during another wash day.

Now, I am not a tall person.  Okay, that's probably an understatement, I'm short.  My suggested working surface height is 28 inches.  I have been setting up the ironing board at 32 inches.

The difference can really be seen in the angle of my elbows.  At the lowered working height, my arms are almost straight down at a more natural angle.  At the original height, I had to hold my arms in a bent position.

Sure enough, the lower board felt much more comfortable.  It took less effort, less strength and I was able to finish quicker.  

So how does this compare to present day ergonomic standards?

Ironing these days is very different than ironing in the early 1900s.  Electric irons were just being released.  You were lucky if you had one that was self-heated using coal or gas, these novelties were considered great time savers.  Frederick wrote that an electric iron in 1912 would have cost $6, that is a cost today of almost $150.  Would you spend $150 on an iron??

Needless to say, using a coal heated iron, or a metal one that needed to be heated on a stove is a lot heavier than a plastic one from today.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has a good graphic that shows the different standing work surface heights for different types of jobs.

http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/standing/standing_basic.html

In this case, heavy work isn't just lifting.  It's defined as work that requires applying a downward force.  It doesn't matter which iron you're using, you need to press down on the iron.

The CCOHS guideline says heavy work should be performed on a surface 7 3/4 - 15 3/4 inches below elbow height, which for average people works out to 25 1/2 - 37 1/2 inches.  My elbow height is about 36 inches off the ground, so a work height of 28 inches falls nicely in this range (for a short person).

So for the last 18 years, I've been setting up my ironing board 4 inches too high.  I'm guessing this is because my father, who is well over six feet tall, taught me to iron.  

I wonder if he knows he was setting up the board two inches too low?