The 5S

Introduction: What is
the 5-S?

5-S stands for five Japanese words: Seiri, Seiton,
Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke (Osada, 19911). The English
equivalent, their meanings and typical examples are shown in the
following table:

Japanese factories are well-known for their cleanliness
and orderliness. This results from their ability to instil a
sense of responsibility and discipline into their workers,
particularly at the plant level. The logic behind the 5-S
practices is that organisation, neatness, cleanliness,
standardisation and discipline at the workplace are basic
requirements for producing high quality products and services,
with little or no waste, and with high productivity.Surprisingly,
this powerful quality tool has been unknown in the west. The
western world has just recently recognised the significance of
the 5-S practice, although there are indications that some
companies have included some aspects of the 5-S in their routines
without being aware of its existence as a formalized technique.
There are many examples of successful implementation of some
principles of the 5-S, especially in the service sector
organisations, such as fast food restaurants. supermarkets,
hotels, libraries, and leisure centres.

A Brief history of
the 5s system

A systematic approach to organizing, ordering, and
cleaning had its origins in post-World War II
Japan—probably in the mid 1950s. At the time, Japanese
manufacturing companies were forced to produce with very few
resources, so they developed a shopfloor method to make every
scrap count while wasting nothing.

Originally, there were only four activities in the
Japanese system. These activities, each beginning with the letter
S, were

1. Seiri (cleaning up),

2. Seiton (organizing),

3. Seiso (cleaning), and

4. Seiketsu (systematic
cleanliness).

Later, a fifth activity was added. Called Shitsuke
(discipline), it completed the S elements that are now known as
5S. (Fabrizio A. & Tapping, 2006 , pág. 2).

Twelve types of
resistance to the 5S

Any company introducing the 5S is likely to encounter
various kinds of resistance, whether from the shop-floor or
clerical staff. I group such resistance into the twelve types
shown in Figure 1-1:

Figure 1-1. Twelve Types of Resistance
to the 5S

Resistance 1. What"s so Great about Organization and
orderliness?

This direct resistance toward 5S implementation is like
asking "Why make such a fuss over something so obvious?" or
"You"re treating us like kids ordered to clean their rooms." But
the fact remains that 5S implementation is needed when the
factory or office is not neat & organized. This particular
resistance stems from the humiliation people feel when they think
they are being treated like children. Therefore, the key is to
eliminate such humiliation before implementing the 5S.

Resistance 2. Why should I, the President, Be 5S
Chairman?

More times than I care to recall, company presidents
have said something like: "You don"t really expect me to get
involved in something as trifling as Organization and
Orderliness?" Instead, they want to assign the 5S chairmanship to
the middle manager. "After all," they add, "I have more important
things to do – like manage the company"s sales and business
policies."

I would be the first to agree that sales and business
policies are important. However, believe it or not, the 5S are
even more important as a foundation of corporate strength.
Obviously, some presidents don"t believe this – but were
the company 5S foundation to be destroyed, they would soon find
out what I mean. Nor do many presidents understand how difficult
it can be to implement the simple 5S. 5S implementation requires
leadership, and top management just abandon its vain
preconceptions and get personally involved.

Resistance 3. Why Clean When it Just Gets Dirty
Again?

Factory people tend to accept dirtiness as an inevitable
condition in their workplace. They argue that cleaning it up
would do little good since it would soon get dirty again. When
employees are indifferent to making and maintaining improvements,
it is not surprising that defect rates remain high and
productivity low. Acceptance of unclean conditions in a workplace
must be eliminated.

Resistance 4. Implementing Organization and
Orderliness Will Not Boost Output.

This objection is heard most often in busy factories.
Usually, it is spouted by shop-floor people standing in a pigsty
asserting that "our job is to make things". Some workers –
and their managers – judge productivity by how much they
move and sweat. This is fine at the athletic club, but not in the
factory. In a factory motion is often a form of waste. Everyone
must learn the important difference between "moving" and
"working".

Resistance 5. Why concern ourselves with
Triviality?

The culprits here are typically middle managers such as
leaders of teams, sections, or departments. I"ve heard these
people say that dirt is a minor problem while standing on a
factory floor drenched with oil or covered with a thick layer of
machining chips.

Any manager who treats the 5S as trivial is really
trivializing productivity and efficient management activity.
After all, any manager who can stand on an oil-drenched floor and
call dirt a minor problem is someone who might absentmindedly
toss a cigarette butt onto that floor and cause a
fire.

Managers who fail to promote neatness and order end up
with a sloppy and undisciplined work force. For this reason, we
must eliminate managerial disregard for the 5S.

Resistance 6. We Already Implemented Organization and
Orderliness.

Some managers only consider the superficial and visible
aspects of the 5S. They think that rearranging things a little
and putting them into neat rows is all there is to it. Their
factories tend to undergo a "makeover" just prior to the company
president"s inspection tour – floors are swept, walls
painted, and objects lined up neatly. However, such orderliness
only scratches the surface of what the 5S are all
about.

When the unsuspecting president enters the made-over
factory, he is duly impressed and says something like "Wow, now I
call that clean!" Usually never seeing behind the veneer of
superficial Organization and Orderliness, he leaves the factory
with a false impression.

Resistance 7. My Filing System Is a Mess
– but I Know My Way Around It!

Some people are able to work around piles of papers and
files. In fact, the sheer volume of the mess reassures them of
their productivity.

I encounter people who actually get upset when I suggest
that they clear off their desks. They mutter something like
"Please leave me alone – I work better this way" and return
to the comfort of their mess. Such people tend to be loners who
avoid contact with others and like having a wall of books and
papers around them. Theirs is a different world from the one that
results from standardization and 5S implementation. The first
step in standardizing clerical operations is to open up such
private messes so that books and files are easily accessible to
anyone who needs them.

Resistance 8. We Did the 5S Years Ago.

This type of comment is heard most often from people who
think the 5S movement is a fad. If they attempted 5S
implementation once 20 years ago, they don"t see why they should
do it again.

The 5S are not a passing fashion. They actually are the
fertilizer on the field of making improvements. They are the
foundation of long-term corporate survival. People who don"t know
this should be informed; people who think they don"t need to know
it should get off their high horses. When I hear someone say they
did the 5S 20 years ago, I am tempted to ask, "Has it also been
20 years since you took a bath"?

Resistance 9. 5S and Related Improvements Are Just
for the Factory.

In some companies, while the manufacturing people
energetically implement the 5S and other improvement and
rationalization measures, the clerical and sales people assert
that such measures have nothing to do with their kind of work.
They do not realize that allowing documents and memos to litter
desktops is the same as allowing dirt and cutting debris to
litter factory floors. This is why 5S implementation must be a
company-wide program.

Resistance10. We"re Too Busy to Spend Time on
Organization and Orderliness.

In some workplaces, Organization and
Orderliness are the first things ignored when things get busy.
Soon we find jigs and tools left out, parts and materials piled
in inconvenient places, and oil and grime building up on the
machinery and floors. The excuse is always that "we"re too busy
for that." Are these people too busy to take showers and brush
their teeth? What they"re really saying is that they don"t want
to keep the place neat and clean, and this is their excuse. The
truth is that their excuse are no more valid than their attitude
toward cleanliness.Resistance 11. Who Are They to Tell Me What
to Do?

Most 5S implementations run into the human-relation
problems early on. Someone might understand how important the 5S
are but object to taking orders from the 5S promotion people.
Once human relations become tangles up, it takes a long time to
smooth them out. Consequently, it pays to form 5S promotion teams
with members skilled at applying the 5S to human
relations.

Resistance 12. We Don"t Need the 5S – We"re
Making Money, So Just Let Us Do Our Work!

It can be difficult to implement the 5S or other
improvement programs at companies that are currently profitable.
If you point out that it is more efficient to keep only one box
of parts on hand at each process, you will likely be countered
with something like "Yes, but we"re doing alright, and this is
the way we like to do it." Generally, such people fail to
recognize how many processes are involved in making a product.
Instead of emphasizing the productivity of individual processes,
we should look first at the overall production flow. Production
has a rhythm, and this rhythm gets upset when workers care only
about their individual processes. A poor rhythm has a negative
impact on inventory and conveyance management, which in the end
creates more waste, such as the extra time needed to find certain
items. By allowing operators to do things their way, we grant a
selfish kind of freedom that hurts everyone in the long
run.

These types of resistance occur at every factory in the
early stages of 5S implementation. If we ignore such resistance
and plow ahead with 5S implementation, the result will likely be
nothing more than superficial improvements. Instead, we must get
everyone to truly understand just how necessary the 5S are while
incorporating 5S implementation into ongoing improvement
activities. This is how to lay a solid foundation for overall
improvement. (Hirano, 1995, págs. 22-26).

Thorough implementation of the 5S affords many direct
and indirect benefits. What I call the essential benefits are
listed Figure 1-2

Figure 1-2. Benefits of the
5S.

Benefit

Benefit 1. Zero Changeovers Bring Product
Diversification

The trend toward product diversification accelerates
with each passing day. Companies that continue to practice
"shish-kebab production" are finding themselves unable to keep up
with this trend To remain competitive, they must reduce to zero
the extra time taken for retooling and other changeover
operations, increase the frequency of changeover, and become more
adaptive to product diversification.

• The orderly arrangement of dies, jigs, and tools
  eliminates a major form of waste ("searching"
  waste).

• Clean equipment and a near workplace help raise
  operational efficiency.

• Thorough implementation of the 5S"s makes workshops
  simple and logical enough for observers to understand with
  ease. Don"t use non-specified jigs for the sake of
  convenience.

Benefit 2. Zero Defects Bring Higher
Quality

Defects result from many causes, including attaching the
wrong parts and using the wrong jig. Organization and Orderliness
prevent these kinds of errors. Further, keeping production
equipment clean reduces equipment-operation errors and enables
faster retooling. These and other 5S effects all add up to fewer
defects.

• Defects are harder to discover when the workplace is
  a mess.

• Taking things from and then returning them to
  designated locations will help eliminate part and tool
  selection errors.

• Clean equipment tends to operate normally and
  without defects.

• A clean and well-organized workplace makes workers
  more conscious of the way they are making things.

• Proper maintenance and storage of quality-assuring
  inspections tools and measuring instruments is a prerequisite
  for zero defects.

Benefit 3. Zero Waste Brings Lower
Costs

Factories and offices are virtual storehouses of waste.
In Japan, a television slogan states that people who spend a lot
of time talking on the telephone or carrying around to many
papers cannot get much work done. And I agree completely. Big
telephone talkers fail to implement Organization and Orderliness
o shorten their phone conversations. People burdened with too
many papers fail to implement Organization and Orderliness by
hung or dis carding unnecessary papers. Long telephone
conversations and armloads of papers are two forms of waste, and
too much waste can prevent us from getting any productive work
done. This applies to both factories and offices.

• Eliminate too much "stand-by waste" in in-process
  inventory and warehouse inventory.

• Eliminate too-much-w-carry waste" in handling
  documents or other materials.

• Eliminate overly abundant (unneeded) storage places
  (warehouses, shelves, cabinets, lockers, etc.).

• Eliminate "sand-by waste" in waiting for conveyance
  equipment (pallets, Carts, forklifts, etc.).

• Eliminate waste arising from unneeded desk supplies
  (too many pencils, erasers, etc.).

• Eliminate waste arising from unneeded allocation of
  space and equipment.

• Eliminate wasteful motion in searching.
  side-stepping. etc.

• Eliminate non-value-added actions (picking up,
  putting down, counting. carrying. etc.).

Benefit 4. Zero Delays Bring Reliable
Deliveries

People who carry too many things mix useful and useless
things. Shuffling through useless papers co 1nd what is important
is a waste. Clearly, these people have failed to implement
Organization and Orderliness in their minds. In the same way,
sloppy thinking results in sloppy actions.

The same holds true in the factory Factories that lack
thorough 5S implementation tend to produce defects no matter what
they do to prevent them. Deadlines whiz by while everyone is busy
reworking defective products. It is indeed hard to meet delivery
deadlines in the face of problems like wasteful motion and too
many errors and defects.

• When errors and defects are eliminated, deliveries
  can go out on time.

• We need good work environments and smooth, highly
  visible operations.

• Absenteeism is lower at 5S workshops.

• Work is more efficient in waste-free
  workshops.

Benefit 5. Zero Injuries Promote
Safely

Injuries can be expected when items are left protruding
into walkways, when stock is piled high in storage areas, or when
equipment is covered with grime, swan, or oil.

Other common events at factories that fail to implement
the 5S"s include confusion due to a lack of outlined storage
sites, head-on collisions when forklifts turn corners without
warning, hand injuries when operators attempt to fix stalled
equipment without cutting the power first, injuries when tall
stacks of inventory fall over unexpectedly, head injuries when
crane hoist handlers forget to wear helmets, and hand injuries
when press operators forget o press the safety switch before
handling the press. "Safety First" is a goodconcept — once
the 5S"s are in place.

• We can discover mechanical failures and hazards
  immediately when equipment is kept in spotless
  condition.

• Maintain well-defined places to put things, plenty
  of uncluttered aisles, and rest areas.

• Place things in a safe manner to prevent breakage,
  etc.

• Clearly mark fire-extinguishing equipment and
  emergency exits in case of fires, earthquakes, or other
  emergencies.

Benefit 6. Zero Breakdowns Bring Better
Maintenance

Equipment should be routinely wiped and polished. Its
condition should be evaluated as part of regular daily upkeep.
When daily maintenance tasks are integrated w2th daily cleaning
tasks, equipment will be ready for use and result in an improved
"availability" ratio.

• Trash, dirt, and dust can lead to major equipment
  breakdowns and shorter equipment life.

• It is easier to see how equipment is running when
  the workshop is free of shavings, filings, and oil
  leaks.

• Nip breakdowns in the bud by maintain and checking
  the equipment daily.

Benefit 7. Zero Complaints Bring Greater Confidence
and Trust

Factories chat practice the 5S"s arc virtually free of
defects and delays. This means they are also free of customer
complaints about product quality.

• Products from a neat and clean workshop are
  defect-free.

• Products from a near and dean workshop cost less to
  make. Products from a neat and dean workshop arrive on
  time.

• Products from a neat arid clean workshop are
  safe.

Benefit 8. Zero Red Ink Brings Corporate
Growth

Companies cannot grow without the trust of customers.
The 5S"s provide a strong, solid base upon which to build
successful business activities.

• People from 5S workplaces gain the respect and trust
  of their communities.

• Customers are happy to buy from manufacturers that
  have eliminated waste, injuries, breakdowns, and
  defects.

• Factories with a solid 5S foundation arc more likely
  to grow.

Reference

Fabrizio A., T., & Tapping, D. (2006 ). 5S for
the Office: Organizing the Workplace to Eliminate Waste. New
York, United State of America: Productivity Press.

Hirano, H. (1995). 5 Pillars of the Visual
Workplace: The Sourcebook for 5S Implementation. New York,
United State of America: Productivity Press.

Ho, S. (1999). Operations and Quality
Management. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.

Autor:

Jorge Salas Turrubiates

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