5S stands for sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain
5S describes how to organize and layout a space for maximum efficiency and effectiveness by identifying, sorting and storing the items used, and maintaining the area and items to help sustain the newly organized areas.
The principles of 5S were developed by the Japanese. It is believed that man has been following basic principles of 5S for centuries in many cultures. 5S describes how to organize and lay out a space for maximum efficiency and effectiveness by identifying, sorting and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items to help sustain the newly organized areas. The basis for 5S lies in Kaizen, or the process of continuous improvement.
Minimizing wasted movements, wasted space, wasted time, waste in general, quality and efficiency will improve. From the minute we wake up every morning, we begin a process in our daily routine – that we follow almost every day. Without even realizing it, we are following a standardized process.
What does 5S stand for?
Sort. Get rid of clutter. Separate out what is needed for the operations and remove the unneeded components.
Set. Set in order, or organize the work area. Make it easy to find what is needed. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Shine. Clean the work area. Make it shine.
Standardize. Establish schedules and methods of performing the normal tasks of the operation in general, and the process of cleaning and sorting.
Sustain. Implement programs to sustain the gains through involvement of all employees from every level.
Benefits OF 5S implementation. Successful implementation and execution of the 5S principles in various organizations results into several benefits as mentioned following:
1. Clean and Pleasant Environment: 5S creates an organized and clean environment. Employees love to work in a clean and pleasant workplace.
2. Self-Discipline: Employees acquire self-discipline, they need to maintain the standards (put the tools pack in their positions, daily cleaning, Regular Audits, etc).
3. Identify and Eliminate Wastes: 5S would bring a lot of wastes to the surface (Overproduction, excess motion, etc.) Employees can start reducing the wastes and improve the Productivity
4. Create More Space: removal of unwanted items and organizing the necessary materials release space. We have found 5S releasing around 10% to 20% more floor space in most of our engagements.
5. Identify Abnormalities: Oil Leaks, Air Leakages and Vibration of machines can be identified easily and fixed immediately.
6. Identify issues in the flow of the materials: Shortage of Parts, Line Imbalances, excess inventory etc. would come to light once we implement 5S.
7. Improvement in Safety: 5S helps in creating a safe workplace by reducing accidents caused by Slippery floors, eliminating oil leaks and creating visual indicators.
8. Improves Machine Uptime: By following daily cleaning and fixing the abnormalities, the breakdowns of the machines would significantly reduce. From our experience we have found more than 60% reduction in breakdowns after 5S implementation.
9. Improves Quality: By making the workplace visible and clean, the overall quality improves as defects cannot be hidden. Defects starts reducing and improvement in First Time Acceptance (FTA) would improve.
10. Improvement in Employee Morale and Positive Attitude: 5S creates a positive attitude and starts a culture change in the company. Employees starts owning the workplace and their machines and they have a sense of belongingness to the company.
CONCLUSION
Continuous improvements have become especially important in the related South Asian market for past decade. The 5S system is a good starting point for all improvement efforts aiming to drive out waste from the manufacturing / services process and ultimately improving a company’s bottom line production by improving products and services and lowering costs. Successful implementation of 5S methodology has found increase in productivity and hence profit levels. The secondary benefits of implementing 5S methodology included higher enthusiasm and punctuality among the workers and safer working conditions. There is also great scope for improving this methodology. Now, the 5S concept is converting into a 7S Methodology. There has been an ongoing discussion since past couple of years whether to add „Safety‟ and „Security‟ as the two new S‟s or not. Therefore, we can say that this methodology is still evolving and a lot of innovations to implement this methodology would be introduced in the coming years.
This exclusive article bas been written by Aqeel Bashir and published in Automark magazine’s printed edition of April-2022.