When I was in graduate school, my Industrial Engineering professor wanted us to write a paper on living our life 'lean.' By lean, I'm referring to lean principles that are prominent in many best-in-class manufacturing organizations today. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how much waste there was in our everyday lives and what impact there would be as we leaned out our daily activities. Even in graduate school, where I was living off at most $13K a year, I still had too much 'stuff'. It was an eye opening experience.
Fast forward to today. I now make more than $13K a year, am married, have a son, a house, and a pension / 401k plan. I'm on my 3rd job now and am in the annals of management for a multi-billion dollar client. Our 2 car garage only holds one car - because the other side is filled with who knows what. Our dining room is a play area for my 20 month old.
When I go to work, I have 2 laptops, 2 phones, an iPad and more paper than I know what to do with. If I decide that a workout is in order for that day, then that adds another bag of a change of clothes and shoes that just shouldn't be necessary. I have 3 sets of headphones, yet have lost my wireless headset which kind of irks me.
If my professor saw me now, he would probably look at me condescendingly and be a bit irritated for passing me through his class.
It's amazing how fast life can get to such a point. As much as I would like to be more independently wealthy, I also dread it because of all the 'stuff' that I would end up collecting. I feel like I'm one step closer to 'Hoarders, Buried Alive'.
All I'm saying is that there has to be a more efficient and effective way for me to work and wade through the Simon property that is my house. If only I was smart enough to apply some inventory management techniques and value stream mapping to processes in my household... I must be one of the worst supply chain practitioners ever...
Fast forward to today. I now make more than $13K a year, am married, have a son, a house, and a pension / 401k plan. I'm on my 3rd job now and am in the annals of management for a multi-billion dollar client. Our 2 car garage only holds one car - because the other side is filled with who knows what. Our dining room is a play area for my 20 month old.
When I go to work, I have 2 laptops, 2 phones, an iPad and more paper than I know what to do with. If I decide that a workout is in order for that day, then that adds another bag of a change of clothes and shoes that just shouldn't be necessary. I have 3 sets of headphones, yet have lost my wireless headset which kind of irks me.
If my professor saw me now, he would probably look at me condescendingly and be a bit irritated for passing me through his class.
It's amazing how fast life can get to such a point. As much as I would like to be more independently wealthy, I also dread it because of all the 'stuff' that I would end up collecting. I feel like I'm one step closer to 'Hoarders, Buried Alive'.
All I'm saying is that there has to be a more efficient and effective way for me to work and wade through the Simon property that is my house. If only I was smart enough to apply some inventory management techniques and value stream mapping to processes in my household... I must be one of the worst supply chain practitioners ever...
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