The 5s methodology application and Suncast shed customer dissatisfaction issues described below for installation of two Suncast BMS6284 Storage sheds apply equally to businesses and organizations. I was a dissatisfied customer with the use of these sheds after they were installed. I had to make an extensive addition to the basic shed design for them to fulfill my fundamental shed usage need.
Smarter Solutions, Inc. needed to eliminate its monthly Public Storage unit expense, which has increased significantly yearly. Freeing garage storage space in our home was necessary to eradicate this expense.
To accomplish this objective, we installed two storage sheds (Suncast vertical storage sheds bought from Costco Warehouse) next to our house.
We then moved garden tools from the garage into the storage units.
5s Methodology Application
The layout of tools in these sheds was a 5s project. 5s (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain) provides a methodology for organizing, cleaning, developing, and sustaining a productive work environment. The 5s philosophy is “a place for everything and everything in its place.”
The final layout of gardening hand tools and other items (e.g., shovel and lawn chairs) and equipment (e.g., lawn mower and wheel barrel) in the two sheds was
These photos include a picture of the tools and equipment placement on a wall within each shed, which is consistent with “visual workplace” and “visual factory” techniques used in industry.
Customer Dissatisfaction with Suncast Vertical Storage Shed Documentation and Product Design
A contractor poured a concrete slab and efficiently installed the Suncast BMS6284 Storage sheds. However, I had much customer dissatisfaction with using the shed’s interior to create a practical 5S tool layout. That is, I encountered Suncast storage shed problems with its usage after the shed was installed.
In my garage, nails in the wall hung garden tools such as a shovel and rake. This similar hanging method was a significant challenge for hanging many tools in the Suncast sheds. There was no mention of how to hang tools on the wall of the Suncast outdoor storage shed in its installation manual.
I found an expensive Suncast product on Amazon, which I purchased, that contained two devices for hanging a few tools. There were no assembly instructions or mounting bolts in the hanging device box, and I needed to attach many more tools to the shed’s walls than these devices provided. I returned this impractical Suncast device to Amazon.
I found a video on attaching 2x4s to the shed’s walls so that someone could attach screws to the 2x4s for hanging tools through an Internet search. Instructions for attaching 2x4s to the shed’s wall begins at 10:30 minutes into the video.
The 2×4 wall attachment screws (9/16 grade 8) described in the video are hard to find (I did not see any documentation in the Suncast vertical storage shed instructions about these screws). I finally found these expensive screws in a specialty screws bin at Lowes. The next question was the length of screws to purchase, and I bought two sizes, which were two and three inches.
The three-inch length screw was, unfortunately, too long. I used the two-inch screws to attach 2x4s to the shed’s walls’ screw holes and returned the three-inch screws to Lowes.
Unfortunately, my 2×4 attachment to the left wall of the shed had problems. The 2×4 wall attachment detached from the shed’s wall with only lightweight lawn chairs hanging (see in the following picture how the left 2×4 detached from left wall [on its right side]).
I called Suncast’s help phone number, which was a waste of time, and the customer service representative did not provide any useful information. In the call, there was a reference to the company’s website, which I did not find beneficial and had poor search capabilities. I could not get one link to work that the customer service provided, which was to offer purchasing access to the screws that Suncast sells.
My solution to this problem was to construct a 2×4 support frame under the 2×4 mounting structure for the tools. This supporting frame (as shown in the following picture) was wedging between the 2×4 tools mounding structure shown in the above video and the shed’s floor.
I resolved the same 2×4 attachment problem on the left side of the second shed’s 2×4 wall attachment, which had much more tools-weight to support.
After much pain and agony, I am pleased with the results of my 5s methodology application project (and process improvement work), with no help from Suncast outdoor storage company’s instructions, customer support, and product design.