5S: The Lean Roadmap

5S: The Lean Roadmap

by Charles Skinner, Consultant, Productivity Inc.

As manufacturing activity slows, plant managers shift their attentions to increasing efficiency in their plants through lean manufacturing methods. But knowing exactly where to begin their lean journey is the first task facing plant managers and improvement teams. The answer is simple - The 5S program. The 5s's are: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.

According to Net Economy writer Carol Wilson, economic slowdowns are a major opportunity for suppliers to improve their manufacturing processes and drive down costs. Building efficiency into manufacturing processes starts with lean practices on the shop floor, and the implementation begins with "5S."

Lean methods originated with Japanese author Hiroyuki Hirano's breakthrough 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace (Productivity Press, 1995). Productivity also conducted numerous Japanese Study Missions to show 5S in action to interested American manufacturers. Based on 5 pillars, 5S is critical to the implementation of all other improvement efforts.

I believe that 5S is the must-have tool. For any of the tools in the toolkit for becoming lean -- quick changeover, total productive maintenance, mistake-proofing, and so on -- 5S significantly helps in both the implementation and sustaining of improvements. The Gold Standard for 5S is that anyone should be able to find anything in their own workplace in less than 30 seconds, and anywhere else in the workplace in less than 5 minutes without talking to anyone, opening a book or turning on a computer.

Overview of 5S

The 5S's are: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. The goal and process of sorting is organization. The sort process distinguishes needed items from unneeded items and removes the latter. This process forces people to remove all items not currently needed for work, wherever it may be, including factory and offices. It is initially the most difficult for people who are afraid to let go of parts, machines, and data, "just in case" they may be needed in the future. However, "red-tagging" items allows workers to set aside and evaluate items and information in terms of its usefulness and the frequency with which it is used. The items and information are returned, stored elsewhere, sold, given away or thrown away. Red-tagging is best done in one target area at a time and within one or two days. When red-tagging is completed, problems and annoyances in the workflow are reduced, communication between workers is improved, product quality is increased, and productivity is enhanced.

"Set in order" organizes a work area for the maximum possible efficiency. Organization and orderliness work best when they are implemented together. "Set in order," means arranging needed items so that they are easy to use and labeling them so that anyone can find them and put them away. The key word in this definition is "anyone." Labeling is mostly for other people who need what is in the area, when the area "owner" is away. The ideal is economy of time and motion.

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