Practice of

occupational Health
and safety
 Applying 5S
• 5S is a process of generating productivity among people in a company
through motivation, education, and practice. 5S is a basic, fundamental,
systematic approach for productivity, quality and safety improvement in
all types of organization.
• 5s was developed in japan and stands for the Japanese words seiri
(tidiness), seiton (orderliness), seiso (cleanliness), seiketsu
(standardization),and shitsuke(discipline). These words have been adapted
to English to maintain “5S”.
1.Seiri (Sort)
• The first step to cleaning up and getting things organized. Sorting improves efficiency, helps increase
quality, and makes it makes it easier to detect problems an enhance productivity. Sorting means to
classify everything in a work area. Keeping only what is necessary. Materials, tools, equipment and
supplies that are rarely used should be placed in a separate, common storage area. Items that are not
needed should be discarded or recycle.5S sorting involves five steps:
• Cleaning
• Classifying
• Ownership
• Red Tagging
• Recycling/Reassignment
2.Seiton (Set in order)
• Organize, identify, and arrange everything in the work area so that items can be efficiently
and effectively retrieved and returned to their correct storage area. This step can also be
called to “put away”. the following are the principles of Seiton:
• Items that are frequently used should be kept close to where they are used.
• Items that are rarely used should be kept in a common location far from the location where
they are used.
• Different items that are used together are kept together.
• Keep things in places where people would logically look to find them
• Define all items and label them.
3.Seiso (Shine)
• This step involves regular cleaning or “shining” things up. This principle makes
sure that the workplace is returned to the condition it was in at the start of the
working day. Everyone in the workplace should participate in cleaning up. Doing
so will result in the following:
• Work practice that help to maintain to workplace clean throughout the day.
• Equipment can be inspected and problems can be detected.
• Workers will identify the safety hazards that exist in the workplace
• Identity and properly store unusual tools.
4. Seikutsu (Standardize)
• Seikutsu makes 5s practice effective and efficient through the development of a work structure and
written standards to assists new practices and turn them into habits.
• One of the difficult steps in 5s is to make the workers adapt new working habits. Some tools to
help implement 5s standards are the following:
• Checklists are commonly used to audit tools to ensure that standards are followed.
• Job Cycle Charts list each 5s task to be done in a workplace and provides a schedule for
performing each task. Each task should be assigned appropriately.
• Five-Minute 5s periods are an intense, quick clean up of a work area. Having five-minute 5s
periods help workers focus on the priorities of 5s and remember the principles that underlie a
successful 5s program.
5.Shitsuke (Sustain)
• Shitsuke is an on-going training to maintain the established 5s standards. Training
not only means gathering everyone together in a classroom. Using customized 5s
posters and signs are an effective way of providing on-going training and
maintaining adherence to standards.

• It is best to change posters on a regular basic to draw the attention of workers.

Messages that remain in places for extended period of time should be replaced as
workers ay lose interest and ignore it. Managers should be involved in 5s through
the following activities:
• Conducting 5s inspections
• Listening to, talking with and giving advice to workers
• Organizing 5s related seminars for workers
• Participate in 5s promotional events