Masaaki Imai, in his book titled Gemba Kaizen said, "As a general rule of thumb, introducing good housekeeping in [the workplace] reduces [defects] by 50 percent … Yet many managers elect to introduce [more complicated improvement tactics] without making efforts to clean house …" Why does 5S increase quality? Mostly because 5S instills a sense of exactness and attention to detail in employees because they are surrounded by order and discipline. They see evidence around them that their company is committed to doing things right, and they become more committed to doing things right. Furthermore, they use the right tools and fixtures to do their work, because the right tools and fixtures are always readily available and in good repair. Finally, less dirt and grease gets into products as they are manufactured.
The reduction in rework caused by the reduction in defects will increase productivity. Furthermore, 5S results in a safer plant and less lost hours. Material and equipment is always where it belongs and there are no surprises. Finally, studies show that before implementing 5S, the average person spends 30 seconds looking for something for every five minutes they spend working. That adds up to 43.6 minutes out of every eight-hour shift. For this last reason alone, implementing 5S will improve your productivity by 9 percent.
Originally, the Japanese used five words all beginning with 'S' (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke) to describe their strategy for attaining workplace organization and cleanliness. Most American consultants translate the words and the underlying meanings of the 5 S's into English as faithfully as possible. I do the same for the first three S's.
The first S is Sort, which means to get rid of anything you don't need in your workplace. Examples include excess supplies and raw materials, excess tools, obsolete work in process, unneeded tooling and equipment, damaged items, and excess furniture, shelves and carts. If it's obvious you don't need an item, throw it in the dumpster. If you are nervous about giving your people complete freedom to throw things away, put everything in a designated holding area until everyone gets a chance to look through it. You may also label each item with a tag telling where and who it came from and on what date (this is called the "red tag" method). Alternatively, you can hold a "5S auction", where everyone in the area gathers around while you point out each piece. If no one claims it, you dump it or sell it.
The second S is Straighten, which means to establish a place for everything and keep everything in its place. Establish pegboards for tools at the point of use. For each tool, label the board and draw an outline of the tool. Color code each board and each of the tools that belong on that board. Keep all tool storage visible. Eliminate storage of tools in drawers, cabinets or personal toolboxes (that can be a big cultural change). Establish and label areas for incoming and outgoing material either on shelves or on the floor. If there is a place for everything in each work area, and everything is in its place, it will be pretty obvious if there is anything in an area that doesn't belong there. If you keep everything Straightened, you will never have to sort again.
The third S is Scrub, which means to get everything very clean and keep it that way. Here are some guidelines: floors must be swept and dry, equipment must be shiny and free of grease and dirt, tools must be cleaned properly before being put away, products must be free of dust and dirt, containers must be in place to catch shavings before they hit the floor, windows must be clean and clear, and floors and equipment must be repainted and polished as necessary.
So much for spring cleaning. The last two S's are designed to maintain the improvement. For the benefit of my clients, I have changed the words and meanings of the fourth and fifth S's.
The Japanese version of the fourth S is translated as "standardize," which gets confused with the concept of "standard work," a different improvement strategy. My fourth S is Schedule. You will need to define daily responsibilities for each work area for what is to be done and who is to do it in order to maintain and continually improve on the state of the first three S's. Post a customized schedule in each work area and make sure it is followed every day so that all work areas are left in perfect condition at the end of each shift. Ten minutes per person per day is normally all it takes not only to maintain, but also to improve on the first three S's.
The Japanese version of the fifth S is translated as "sustain," which means to keep the effort going. I use the more practical word Score, which means to frequently measure how well each work area is performing with respect to the first four S's. The plant manager should score each area once per week for the first six weeks after your initial implementation of 5S in order to ensure a good start, and once per month thereafter. Why should the plant manager do the inspections? As Hiroyuki Hirano said in his book 5S: Five Pillars of the Visual Workplace, "Good workplaces develop beginning with the five S's. Bad workplaces fall apart beginning with the five S's." In other words, the plant manager must demonstrate his commitment and personal leadership of 5S by being on the floor himself and making sure it is happening. To paraphrase Dale Carnegie, if the plant manager is not fired with enthusiasm for 5S, he should be fired with enthusiasm.
5S is easy to teach and implement. It is the best way to start your manufacturing improvement effort because you will not only get immediate quality and productivity benefits, you will also experience very little resistance to change because few people will argue against having a cleaner and more organized workplace. In fact, most of your people will celebrate the improvement in working conditions. After implementing 5S your people will feel better about themselves and their organization.
The bottom line: don't waste your time and money on implementing the more dramatic and interesting manufacturing improvement tactics such as work cells or kanban or setup reduction before you implement 5S. Until you can get your work areas clean and organized, and keep them that way, you won't be able to sustain any other improvements you make.
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