M.M. Shahriar et al.
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100488
Fig. 7. Sizers after setting in order in the rack (The storage of large sizers from the bottom is indicated in red). (For interpretation of the references to color in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 8. Marking the sizers according to their size.
Fig. 9. Marking on the racks according to the size range of the sizers.
5.2.6. Benefits
• By comparing Figs. 3 and 10 for ‘Sizers collection and lifting’ oper­
ation, the average search time for Sizers decreased from 105 s to 35 s
(66.67%) and the overall operating time decreased by 8% (from 866
s to 796 s)
• Safety with proper Ergonomic standards were ensured in that area by
separating and organizing the Sizers in a standard way.
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5.3. 5S implementation in the ‘printing Block’ storing area
The blocks required for printing on the plastic bag, were found to be
unorganized in the rack with insufficient lighting facilities (Fig. 11).
These blocks are very small compared to the Sizers. The company deals
with hundreds of customers, and it stores blocks of different designs
from different customers for printing purposes. The blocks are often
reused in every repeat order received from the same customer. That’s
why there’s a need to store these blocks in a standard way to minimize
search time.
5.3.1. Sorting
The first step in the implementation of 5S is to separate the necessary
and unnecessary items. For this purpose, data on the printing blocks
used in the last 13 months has been collected from the industry man­
agement team. Fig. 12 shows the number of blocks used by different
customers over the last 13 months. Any of the blocks found to be unused
in the last 13 months have been picked as unwanted items and removed
from the print area and disposed of in a sensible way.
5.3.2. Setting in order
In the next step, setting the blocks in order, there was a problem of
arranging the blocks customer-wise as the items (blocks) were of
different sizes and may be lost if the arrangement is not done properly.
In order to overcome the problem, the authors decided to store the
M.M. Shahriar et al.
Fig. 10. Blowing process sequence chart after implementation of 5S.
Fig. 11. Previous unorganized condition of blocks in the rack.
blocks in books (Fig. 13).
Each book contains the blocks of a single customer. The books were
made with the sacks that contain poly-granulates, which become waste
after the granules have been consumed. It’s very flexible to use. The
blocks were attached to the book pages with dilute adhesives so that the
blocks could be extracted quickly from the books if they needed to be
used. Data from the last 13 months was analyzed to find out which
customer ordered more printed plastic bags (Fig. 2). Priority was given
when the blocks were organized from the first row of the rack to the last.
5.3.3. Shining the work area
Blocks in the rack were found lying or hanging randomly, and the
area was uncleansed by dirty blocks sticking printing inks to it. In this
phase, the entire area was cleaned up by the valiant efforts of the staff,
for which they are truly appreciable. Block books were kept customer-
hierarchy-wise in different rack chambers. Sufficient lighting facilities
were provided in that area to make the searching procedure convenient.
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Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100488
There was no specific cleaning schedule prior to the implementation of
5S. Cleaning was carried out in an unorthodox way. A cleaning schedule
has been planned during the implementation of the 5S.
5.3.4. Standardize
In the fourth step, the standardization of the system starts with the
labeling of the chambers by the names of books containing customer-
wise separated blocks. The block search operation became so easy as
to give a high degree of satisfaction to the workers who had previously
found it very unsatisfactory (Fig. 14).
5.3.5. Sustaining the improvements
The average time for the process of block searching and setting it up
with a cylinder has been lowered to 210 s from 437 s after a step-by-step
implementation of 5S in the printing operation, as shown in Fig. 15.
Before implementation, searching for blocks in a printing operation
contributed 34.78% of the whole printing operational time, which is
M.M. Shahriar et al. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100488

Fig. 12. The frequency of blocks used for different customers.

✓ The blocks are cleaned after the operation done. Because the area
should not be filthy with colors disseminating here and there.
✓ The blocks are placed in their proper location after they have been
used.
✓ If the blocks are getting detached from the book, use other adhesive
that may result in good stickiness.
✓ The racks are either swept or not.
✓ The labels that are hanging on racks with size ranges are either torn
out or okay; if they are found torn out, they have to be reprinted and
hung in the corresponding area for that specific set of blocks.

5.3.6. Benefits

• Comparing Fig. 4 with Fig. 15, the average searching time for blocks
was decreased from 437 s to 210 s (66.66%) and the whole opera­
Fig. 13. Book containing printing blocks. tional time was reduced by 18% (from 1256 s to 1029 s).
• In the three months following the deployment of 5S, the number of
customer complaints about printing errors decreased from eight to
one (section 5.1).

5.3.7. Barriers in implementing 5S

Many scholars have addressed the difficulties of applying 5S from a
practical standpoint in their investigations. The authors also mentioned
various difficulties that they encountered when implementing 5S. These
are as follows:

• The biggest problem in implementing 5S has been recognized as a

Fig. 14. Block keeping cabinet after implementation of 5S.
now minimized to 20.40% (Fig. 15) after 5S implementation. For sus­
taining the system an auditing format like as for finding the Sizers, has
been established for this purpose also. The audit team will be the same as
it has been declared for the sizers part. The supervisor responsible for
this area shall check, at a regular interval of 24 h, whether:
lack of support from senior management (Singh and Ahuja, 2015).
• Changing employees’ perceptions of their jobs is another obstacle to
implementing 5S. The majority of them believe they are performing
the same tasks and that they are already performing properly
(Chandrayan et al., 2019).
• Because of a lack of sufficient training and employee motivation, any
type of development, whether 5S or any other technique, stays just as
a concept (Singh and Ahuja, 2015). Employees generally believe that
their primary goal is to boost productivity rather than to clean or
organize the workplace. This problem can be considerably overcome
by providing sufficient training and motivation to employees about
the aim of the 5S program, which is not to increase their work but to
boost productivity.

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