What?
5S is a specific philosophy within lean manufacturing that is often characterized by "a place for everything and everything in a place."
These principles focus on organizing the workplace, reducing waste, increasing cleanliness, and establishing consistent processes. The benefits include improved quality, reduced lead time, increased employee morale, and a safer working environment.
5S is based on five principles that all start with the letter S, originating from the Japanese Language:
- Seiri: Sort
- Seiton: Straighten or Set in Order
- Seiso: Shine
- seiketsu: Standardize
- Shitsuke: Sustain
Sort
"Sort" is the first principle of the 5S methodology. It involves organizing all your materials and products to keep only the essential items needed for your manufacturing processes. Anything that is not necessary is considered a waste of space.
By sorting your materials and products, you can create a cleaner environment without the clutter and mess that may currently exist on your production floor. You can eliminate boxes of broken or unnecessary parts from your warehouses and inventory centers, making room to prioritize materials and products that add value to your production efforts.
Set in Order
The next lean manufacturing technique is called "straighten", also known as "set in order". This step ensures that every item on your factory floor is organized logically for efficient production flow. The materials and tools that are needed most often should be easily accessible and placed in more prominent locations. Additionally, heavy items should not be stored on the floor to prevent injuries and reduce unnecessary movements.
Having easily accessible products and materials increases the overall efficiency of your production process by reducing the time spent searching for necessary tools. Instead, employees can quickly locate and collect what they need without expending extra effort that could slow things down or endanger their safety.
Shine
The next principle of lean manufacturing, as described in this blog post, is "shine." This principle refers to the active efforts needed to maintain a clean and organized work environment. Your newly organized workspace must be kept clean at all times and maintained to ensure that the work you did earlier in the process can continue going forward. "Shine" activities include mopping, sweeping, dusting, and routine equipment and machine maintenance.
Keeping things clean is essential for improving your entire team's morale. The philosophy here is that the state of your workspace has a direct correlation to the state of the mind, so the goal is to have a clear mindset and work environment. Working in a clean environment is better for health reasons and allows your employees to take pride in their workplace. It is also essential to optimize the quality of your products and ensure that dirty machines and faulty equipment do not slow down your processes.
Standardize
The next step in the lean manufacturing process is "standardize." There are various ways to standardize your processes for daily implementation, such as creating a system for moving forward with charts, lists, schedules, and plans. This ensures that your efforts are maintained and kept up to standard.
In 5S implementation, standardization and documentation are crucial. They ensure your team knows precisely what they need to do to keep the factory functioning optimally. Without written and recorded standards, there is no consistency. A lack of consistency can lead to bigger problems down the line and ruin the efficiency that you have built into your systems and processes.
Sustain
The final principle of lean manufacturing is "sustain." In this step, you take the planning and strategizing you did in the standardizing step and maintain it.
This step can be the most difficult, as it requires self-discipline from managers, owners, and team members. Without commitment to lean manufacturing principles from your team and leaders, it will be hard to continue working in a lean environment without restarting the process from scratch. However, if done correctly, this is the step that keeps your success going. [^1]
[^1]: Source: https://blog.empuls.io/sustainability-in-the-workplace/
The core methodology of the 5S system centers around the mindset of continually improving your efforts and finding new and better ways to address your production processes. By putting in the effort to create this workplace atmosphere, you can ensure you are getting the true value out of your 5S program and that the systems you have put into place will last.
Time Commitment: Low to Medium
Features Required: Downtime Labeling (Optional)
How?
- Begin to analyze your downtime and narrow down on where the bottlenecks are (certain machines, shifts, operators, parts, departments…etc)
- Determine the causes for downtime with downtime labeling
- Implement 5S as a way to reduce downtime
- Measure Utilization before implementing 5S and after and use the Amper Project Calculator to claim savings!
Below are examples of 5S Tools and Ideas for Each Stage
Sort
- Tools
- Red tag system
- Visual management and visual controls
- Andon system
- Examples
- Empty the boxes in the back storeroom.
- Organize all incoming raw materials.
- Dispose of or recycle all broken or unused items.
Set in Order
- Tools
- Kanban
- Demand management
- Gemba
- Examples
- Color-code all storage bins and shelving units.
- Separate everyday items from "once-in-a-while" items.
- Assign designated areas of the factory to a specific purpose.
Shine
- Tools
- Total quality management
- Machine monitoring
- Preventative maintenance
- Examples
- Wipe down equipment after each use.
- Create a cleaning schedule for dusting and mopping.
- Disassemble machines or equipment to inspect their parts.
- Plan a maintenance schedule based on machine usage, rather than calendar-based.
Standardize
- Tools
- One-piece flow
- Jidoka
- Heijunka
- Examples
- Develop implementation and audit checklists to facilitate the rollout of lean initiatives.
- Build training and onboarding programs for new employees.
- Create dynamic work instructions for all processes and tasks to maximize employee time.
Sustain
- Tools
- Kaizen
- Just-in-time production scheduling
- Takt time
- Examples
- Perform periodic check-ins to ensure team members are meeting their goals.
- Establish plans to retrain and address any issues in case of mistakes.
- Encourage open communication between team members and supervisors.