Taking 5S beyond just cleaning the workplace

I have visited many companies where they have tried to implement 5S and a common complaint is that the program failed miserably and was a waste of time. Looking around these offices and workshops, it became apparent to me that these companies did not really understand what the 5S idea is all about and merely conducted a superficial cleanup. Of course, initially, every one got excited and expected great things from the program. After a few weeks, the excitement died down and everything was “back to usual”. This is what we call BSDU, or “balik to dating ugali”.

So what is 5S?

1. Sort (Seiri) - the first step in getting things cleaned and organized
2. Straighten (Seiton) - organize, identify and arrange everything in a work area
3. Shine (Seiso) - regular cleaning and maintenance
4. Standardize (Seiketsu) - make it easy to maintain, simplify and standardize
5. Sustain (Shitsuke) - maintaining what has been accomplished

The 5S principles are very easy to understand and we can even say that these principles were taught to us during our early childhood. After all, didn’t all of us go through helping our mom clean the house and help put away the groceries? Didn’t we wash and dry the cutlery, sort them out and put them into drawers?

The big difference is that Japanese industry has been able to implement the system successfully in such a way that even the lowest level worker has embraced the concept and practices it daily as part of his everyday life at home, in the office and on the shop floor. Could this be one of the ingredients for their great levels of productivity?

The key targets of 5S are increasing the morale and efficiency in the workplace. One of the key ideas is to not waste time by looking for things we normally use. This means developing a strategy to have a place for everything and put everything in its place. As next step, we would remove all the things we don’t need right away and put them in storage. By using visual controls, it quickly becomes obvious when something is missing from its assigned location.

Therefore, 5S is a method for organizing a workplace and keeping it organized. The key concept is to order items or activities in a manner to promote work flow. For example, tools should be kept at the point of use, workers should not have to repetitively bend to access materials, flow paths can be altered to improve efficiency, and etc.

The Potential of 5S

5S has the potential to deliver great benefits that go far beyond just cleaning up the shop floor. Correctly implemented, 5S can help your company find that competitive edge in customer service that will blow away the competition. The low cost, but very effective, ideas in 5S can help you ensure that there a fewer missed calls, fewer missing documents and less wasted time.

5S is a very powerful tool for doing the following:

• Flow the work more efficiently
• Maintain and increase customer service levels
• Reduce your cost of production by removing wasted time and motion
• Implement a more pro-active management style
• Implement continuous improvement
• Monitor production performance

Implementing 5S

Launching a 5S program in your company is similar to launching any other lifestyle change. It requires that employees are willing to learn new things, change the way they do things, and persist in the effort to change.

If you are interested in implementing an effective 5S strategy in your office or factory, give us a call at (632) 372-4563 and visit our website at http://www.rmpconsultancy.com. We conduct public seminars and in-house seminars. Come and attend our public seminar on

“5S is more than how things look; it is really more about how things function.”
Rafael M. Pefianco

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