Hold a lean kaizen event without wasting paper!
As someone who is conscientious of wasting paper, I struggle with conducting lean events with the vast amounts of “butcher” paper and easel pads that are used during the event. I try to utilize white boards as much as possible, especially for mapping and documenting actions items. I’ll also encourage computer use, to capture information electronically, but that isn’t always easy to do (or very engaging with the team). Easel pads work well and are portable for group work, so they are very popular.
I was really happy when one of the facilitators for our recent kaizen event brought a new product that I thought was really cool, the “Write On – Cling On Static Easel Pad”
Instead of wasting paper with traditional paper easel pads, you buy one pad, and reuse it over and over again. It comes in a condensed roll (not a clumsy, hard-to-carry easel), and it clings to EVERYTHING!
Here is a picture of the paper clinging to the walls of the conference room…
It also clings to pictures, artwork, the whiteboard, the back of the door and every surface we tried. I really expected it to be limited on what it would cling to.
It also prevents bleeding through the paper, just in case you accidentally use a permanent marker. Just like other whiteboard surfaces, you can get the permanent marker removed fairly easily.
To use it, simply tear off the paper from the roll, throw it against the wall, smooth it out quickly, grab a dry erase marker, and start writing. When you’re done, wipe it off with a dry eraser, like you would a whiteboard. You can clean it the same as a whiteboard.
In addition to the paper reduction, you also save on tape and adhesive (depending on the pad you normally buy), so there are many environmental “green” reasons to use this product.
If you look at product reviews on Amazon.com, some people don’t like it, but I haven’t had any issues with it. It’s even less expensive than an easel pad, so there is little risk to try it.
