Bathroom Lean

One could argue that all of them are non value added, so why bother?

Shaving while in the shower, certainly, that makes sense, however, I’ve found that I get a better shave outside of the shower.

Brushing my teeth in the shower, no way! Using hot water to brush my teeth is nasty.

At the worst, it takes me 10 minutes to get ready. I don’t see the point in leaning the process any more than I have (which includes not putting things in the cabinet).

You lean thinkers really have nothing better to do with your time, why not help me with my dissertation on “Getting It Right First Time” ? lets face it we will never change this industry everyones in for the quick ride! Thats of course you can do it in the shower whilst carrying out all the other laborious activities now thats what i call TQM.

Why not experiment with both, and see if you can gain more insight into the process? For instance, I have no clue which approach has the shortest lead time, but an experiment might generate additional knowledge. Personally I would have concerns about the quality of my shaving and brushing, if I had to do it concurrently with showering.

I’m wondering if there is a point in realizing the value in smaller batches by doing each task separately. Maybe your wife stops by the bathroom half way through the process, and a completed shave and brush would be perceived as delivered value.

Thanks for a great site Ron!

Since all 3 actions require the use of at least one hand and are difficult to do
simultaneously, I believe they must be done one at a time. In my case, shaving takes about 10 minutes, brushing my teeth takes about 2 minutes, and showering takes about 5 minutes. If I did all 3 in the shower, then I’d be using 2.5 gallons of water for 17 minutes. Currently I only use that much for 5 minutes because I turn the water on and off as needed while brushing my teeth and shaving, so I’d be wasting a lot of water. I also prefer to shave with hot water, shower with warm water, and brush my teeth with cold water. Doing all 3 in the shower forces me to compromise on 2 of the 3.

So the bottom line is, do them separately to achieve higher customer
satisfaction and reduce water usage.

What about eliminate the entire shaving process by waxing or electrolysis? Not only would it save time but also the time and cost of buying razer, gel, shampoo and all other consumables on a regular basis? As well as using less water and cause less harm to the environment by not discharging soapy chemicals and disposal of sharp razer. It might even improve the outlook of some of the men in question.

I tried shaving in the shower and got a tingling sensation that only went away after I stepped out of the shower and turned off the shaver at the power point….
As Ron said – its only ” a fun question….”….!

Sune Gynthersen has the right idea – Experiment, don’t do the mental guesswork. Trystorm! (but yes, i appreciate it’s for a blog and it’s less interesting if all you did was report back your findings)

p.s. I use an electric shaver so definitely no shaving in the shower for me!

One trystorm i’m not too keen to experiment with! But correct, you just challenged my assumptions :>

A minute of googlefu and i learned razors designed for shower use have o-rings. The batteries arent that high of a voltage so i doubt you could shock yourself in the event you ruined it. I would lookup the manual for your shavers model number on the manafacturer website and see if it says anything about water or showers.

Safety first – Good thinking miket 🙂

For me doing them all in the shower was a huge saving since regardless of the amount of “work” remaining after the shower I was going to sit in the shower until the hot water ran out. For me the ultimate saving would be buying a smaller hot water tank.

Love the blog