Benefits of 5S; Is 5S Lean Manufacturing just Housekeeping?

What are the benefits of 5S implemented as part of Lean manufacturing, many people mistakenly believe that 5S is just housekeeping but it far more than that by a long way. If you could improve the efficiency of your production area by 10% would you do it? Would you believe that simple reorganization of your workplace could achieve this or much more. Well 5S can help you achieve efficiency improvements in some environments of as much as 30%!

5S is a basic building block of lean manufacturing and provides a solid foundation upon which to build future improvements within your business. The benefits of lean manufacturing can only be realised through implementing the full philosophy of lean and the various lean tools.

5S is a very inexpensive tool to implement, if your team is coming up with highly expensive proposals for 5S implementation then they are probably not thinking hard enough about your problems. 5S is not just applicable to the factory floor, the principles of 5S can be applied in any setting or application, you can apply 5S in the office, even on the files on your computer hard drive.

The benefits of 5S are very significant when compared to the relatively inexpensive and simple implementation process.

The history of 5S is not as clear as for some tools and seems to be fairly confused, some attributing it to Toyota and others to the Japanese Plant Maintenance Institute. Whatever the specific origins are it is clearly part of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and has been well absorbed into the Toyota Production System (TPS) and lean manufacturing.

It seems to have been implemented as a specific methodology from the early 1970’s but was known of before this but not as a widely publicized and implemented tool.

5S has many benefits as part of lean manufacturing, it is suggested that improvements in the order or 10 to 30% in manufacturing efficiency can be gained through implementing 5S. This is certainly true in my experience, having run many projects in a variety of industries I have seen improvements in these orders in every project, even those companies that prided themselves on their house keeping.

Typically the benefits of 5S will cover the following areas;

Efficiency, improved due to the removal of clutter and the highly organized ergonomic workspace that is created through the application of 5S.

Delays reduced due to more visible workspace organization, missing tools and components immediately obvious. Problems are immediately obvious as they will tend to manifest as things being placed where they do not belong, thus driving people to fix them quicker.

Setups reduced due to ergonomic layout and organization of tools and equipment in a clearly labeled and highly visible manner

Morale improved due to the employees involvement in improving their own workspace to their own benefit making their work easier and less stressful (remember lean is not about turning people into robots).

Marketing tool due to the tidy and organized layout resulting from your implementation of 5S.

Quality improved due to standardized ways or working and basic maintenance of tools and machines. The correct tools and equipment being in place means that the right tools are used for the job, plus the ergonomic workplace reduces opportunities for handling damage and the like.

Energy savings due to the improved efficiencies.

Safety improvements due to the removal of clutter that creates hazards, “a place for everything and everything in its place”, and an ergonomic layout that prevents stressful “dangerous” movements such as removing heavy objects from high or low locations.

5S lean is best implemented under the guidance of an expert, either your experienced internal lean practitioner or through the hiring of a lean trainer or hiring a lean consultant to provide in-house 5S training.

5S is a team based approach that requires the involvement of everyone in the specific area to be improved as well as involving people from outside the area for additional ideas. 5S is very much a hands on tool, all those involved should expect to be involved in every aspect of the implementation from clearing out the clutter through to cleaning and the audits and continual improvement.

5S is not a once off activity, the organization should encourage continual improvement of the workplace and promote a lack of tolerance for things that are not to standard.

The following are the main steps of 5S (Japanese and English terms) with a brief explanation, if you would like more details of how to implement each step look at the 5S hub; 5S

Seiri or Sort
- Removing all unnecessary clutter from the workplace leaving only the necessary items.

Seiton or Set in order
- Arrange all items visually for ease of use and retrieval. Also to allow missing items and shortages to be identified rapidly.

Seiso or Shine & Check
- Clean (and keep clean) the work place so that problems can be identified when they occur.

Seiketsu or Standardise
- Make the first three steps part of the everyday routine with regular audits and so on.

Shitsuke or Sustain

- Create a culture with a shared set of values that maintains all of the above.

And for some organisations the 6^th S;

Safety
- Ensure the safety of your employees through the implementation of the first five steps.

The following are useful links for business support and lean manufacturing resources.

http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/ The Institute for Manufacturing within Cambridge University. They will often have students or consultants who are worth approaching for training to implement improvement projects such as 5S.

http://www.thecqi.org/ The Chartered Quality Institute is another place to find out more business improvement ideas such as 5S and to source good quality experienced trainers and consultants.

http://asq.org/ The American Society of Quality can also aid you in finding consultants to help you train your people in the various business improvement ideas and have huge amounts of information to help you.

http://www.nam.org/ American National Association of Manufacturers can help your organization to meeting companies in similar situations to yourself who may be implementing ideas such as 5S or lean manufacturing.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/ UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills can help you with training, funding for training and point you in the direction of a consultant or trainer to help you implement 5S Lean Manufacturing.

http://www.mas.bis.gov.uk/ the UK Manufacturing Advisory Service can provide free diagnostic services as well as lead projects to improve your business. They are highly experienced in implementing 5S across most regions of the UK and can help you relise significant benefits from 5S.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home UK Business Link can help you find a Trainer for 5S as well as funding in some instances depending on the current government initiatives.

http://www.business.gov/ US Business Link can help you gain lean production processes through sourcing 5S trainers in much the same way the UK business link can.

http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/production_system/index.html Toyota is always worth a look at with them being the originators of Lean Manufacturing as we see it today.

http://www.smmt.co.uk Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders can help with support and many publications around the principles of Lean manufacturing including 5S.

http://www.aiag.org/scriptcontent/index.cfm Automotive Industry Action Group is the American verion of the SMMT and can help you with 5S and Lean Manufacturing in much the same way.

These Links will help you to find more information regarding 5S and other lean manufacturing concepts and principles to help you improve your business.