5S

The 5 Pillars of the

Visual Workplace

Continuous Improvements
 Improving your Company

Each of the 5 pillars is a “structural element” to

support and maintain the future improvements
within a company.
Many do not believe that having a neat and clean
environment aids production, however the fact
remains that

• A neat and clean factory has higher productivity

• A neat and clean factory is safer
• A neat and clean factory meets deadlines better
• A neat and clean factory produces fewer defects
• A neat and clean factory is less hassle
• A neat and clean factory isn’t an embarrassment
 The 5S Description
Original Trans. Alt.

Seiri Sort Clearing Removal of all items that are not needed
within the scope of current production.
E-bay is your friend
Seitori Set in Arranging Every tool, bin, pallet should have a place.
Order Shadow boards, tape and paint

Seiso Shine Neatness Ensuring everything in the factory stays

clean
Both prevention & cleaning routines apply

Shitsuki Standardise Discipline The methods used to maintain the gains, not
only standard ops, best current practice and
actively using ISO are applicable

Seiketsu Sustain Ongoing Ensuring that the gains are held and
Improvements continue to be made. Removal of friction
and waste
 Overcoming Resistance

• “Paid to make widgets NOT clean-up”

– True most people are paid to make items, however most
people are paid to make lots of items. 5S really does give you
more production for less effort, bit of a win, win really.

• “Why clean it, it’ll just get dirty again!”

– Dirtiness affects many aspects of the work place, it really is
worth cleaning up. You can avoid doing other jobs, extending
current jobs or have less hassle with 5S.

• “Too busy making to do 5S activities”

– Some activities can be “put-off” till later, but like cleaning
your teeth, negative consequences will soon occur if left too
long
 Overcoming Resistance II
• Need to create a win-win for staff and company.

• Benefits of the company need to be translated into

benefits to staff, i.e.
– less hassle from bosses,
– job-security,
– increased self-determination,
– design of workspace and procedures

• Staff have to take ownership rather than have it forced

upon them.

• Constant nay-sayers and closed negative minds need to

be dealt with so they do not “contaminate” others.
 Sort
Sort corresponds to the principles of JIT:

“…only what is needed, in the amounts necessary,

as they are required…”

Hence when you Sort you remove everything that is not

required for current production, this does not mean:
• Only items that will definitely not be needed are
removed
• Items are arranged into neat rows or patterns

When in doubt, throw it out

 Importance of Sort

• Sort creates an environment that is permeable to change and

improvement.
• The goal is to remove obstacles
– Problems and annoyances in the work flow are
reduced
– Communications between staff is improved
– Quality improves
– Productivity is enhanced
– Won’t feel embarrassed taking people around the
workplace

• As the first step, staff will be watching to see if this is just a pet
project, to be ignored if production pressure arises.
 Red -Tagging

RED TAG A red tag “holding” area acts as a buffer to store

items away from the workplace that are not
Category 1. Raw Material
2. Equipment required in current production.
3. Tools
4. Other
5. …
Item
Name
Imperial Die set
Each item has a red tag with the date of when the
ID Code 123abc item was placed in storage, necessity of item
storage is reviewed by date.
Dept/cell Lock set cell

Date in

Name

…
Both local and global red-tag areas are useful to
…
store items that are used in different areas.
 Interactive bit

• Give me three examples of areas

that could benefit from sorting, the
area may be:
– Unsafe
– Claustrophobic
– Require an indirect route between
stations
– Have lots of “piled up stuff”
– Require tools, which are always
somewhere else
 Set in Order

Once SORT is complete, Set in Order

ensures that the items necessary for
current production are:
• Optimised in positions / order for current

 
production
• Labelled correctly and clearly so anyone can use
the area
                                                                                                                                

• Standardisation becomes the norm, with

   
   

• Visual controls inform staff of standard

procedures, item areas and volumes, WIP status
etc…
 Implementing Set in Order

Set in Order has two distinct steps

• Deciding appropriate locations for items
– Storage of items, eliminating waste in pick & replace
– Eliminate waste in variety of items
– Eliminate excess motion in operations

• Identifying those locations

– A sign board, clearly labelled
– Floor paint (use tape first) to flow work optimally
– Decide on strategy, of colours, logical text, standard items
 Sort and Set are Fundamental

• Without having these two pillars fundamentally

understood and practiced the remaining pillars and
future improvements will prove difficult (impossible?)
to implement and maintain.

• Be ambitious in the application of the techniques

necessary to adopt a Sort and Set environment.
 Interactive bit

• Discuss two areas where production

is frustrating
• Do the tools keep going missing, or do you
have to wait for them to become available.
• Do operators zig-zag around the area
and/or get in each others way
• Do you have to stretch or bend awkwardly
• Is the process confusing either in number
of similar parts or difficult equipment
 Shine
• The clean-up stage everyone associates with 5S, but Shine
encompasses more than that.

• Shine also infers that equipment is kept in tip-top condition

• Cleaning is also moved from a quarter or yearly end thing to do,

to an every day 5 or 10 minute activity.

• Many safety issues are undertaken in the Shine pillar.

• Paint (and light) is your friend, Builders magnolia is cheap and

plentiful!

• Automating the cleaning process is beneficial, Henry Ford had

automatic vacuum cleaners.
 Systematic Shine Procedure
• Targets need to be set for the daily routines.

• These targets are separated by

– Warehouse items
– Equipment & resources
– Work floor area

• Specific activities are assigned to given areas & individuals

• Time and methods are determined for Shine activities; inspection

prior, activities during and activities after a shift are identified.

• The tools utilised during a shine activity are given the sort and set
methodologies
 Shine Incorporates
Inspection (Later!)
• Later, shine activities incorporate inspection.

• By combining the cleaning and inspection checklist,

operators use their own familiarity with equipment to
diagnose problems.
» Like the shine checklist, the combined list has set pre, during
and post activities & targets
» Obviously this is done as safely as possible
» Poka-yoke techniques can be used to ensure that equipement
cannot be started unless specific checks have been done in
order.

» This combined checklist only occurs once the shine activities

are completely engaged.
 Interactive bit

• What areas of the factory are the dirtiest

and/or are depressing to work in
– An area that is just a sty, does anyone have
responsibility for this area
– An area that is gloomy with dark drab colours and
poor light
– Have windows been boarded up rather than repaired
– Have the plastic windows fogged to smokers finger
yellow
– If you dropped something on the floor, would it
immediately be obvious that a bad part had been made
or that a machine was missing a vital comp.
 Standardise (Schedule)

• By maintaining the gains made from sort, set and shine,

we have effectively standardised them.

• The main goal is to avoid going back to the bad old

days by ensuring that daily activities are sufficient to
maintain the status quo.

• Effectively turn the first 3Ss into a habit

 Who does what?
• Who does what is important, people need to understand,
what to do , when to do it, where and how.
5S Job Cycle Chart Name: Dept:

Date:

No 5S Job

SortSet Shine CONTINUOUSLY

Standardise
Sustain DAILY(AM)
DAILY(PM)
WEEKLY
MONTHLY
1 Red-Tag (company wide)
2 Red-tag (cells / lines)
3 Inventory check
4 Tool check
5 Wipe area
6 Vacuum area
7 Machine Clean Inspection (Ops)
8 Degrease work area
9 etc
• Supervisors need to play a major role in ensuring these
happen.
 Interactive bit

• Discuss
– A daily five minute routine that “rounds up a days
work”

– A weekly routine that makes the work area, MD visit

friendly.

– Do the work areas require a blitzed effort to make

them really clean or can several shine activities over
the coarse of 2 or 3 months make it that way.

– Can the sort, set and shine activities be integrated into

current work
 Integrating 3S duties
into normal work
• In order to get to 5S, the 3S duties need to be integrated
into normal daily duties.

• Otherwise 3S duties will only be carried out as 3S

conditions are seen to be slipping

• Supervisors have to ensure that Visual 5S and Five-Minute

5S actions are undertaken by staff and that the necessary
equipment, time and any required resources are available
to perform those duties.

• Supervisors, team leaders & the 5S patrol ensure that the

duties are being undertaken regularly
 Visual 5S

• The goal is to make visual 5S status obvious at a glance

• After 5 minutes (almost) anyone can ascertain if the

area is under control and meeting performance targets

• Hence
– What (where) are the performance targets,
– Where do parts in and out go,
– What are the previous and next steps
– Are all the tools available
– What are the process steps and safety procedures
 Five minute 5S

• Similar to five minute shine activities this activity

Five Minute 5S covers all the pillars rather than just the one.
Area: Contact:
Keying Assm Joe Suggs
• Generally Five minute (could also be ten minute)
Sort Remove unwanted tooling
(red tag to holding area) 5S will be kicked off by some sort of problem
Set Mark out product variants seen from Visual 5S.
(floor tape from Joe)
Shine Degrease banjo press
(gloves, solvent from Joe) • Similar to a 5 minute shine activity, a routine 5S
Standardise Why is banjo press greasy, board or sheet with activities on it is produced.
Why are variants mixed
Sustain Who is/are responsible for
press • The 5 activity sheet can be generated by the 5S
patrol, supervisors and team leaders as part of a
gap analysis.
 Asking why

• Fighting fires is OK / fighting fires already put

out is not

• Prevention of repeated problems needs to be

tackled, this is the removal of friction that
defines a Lean company.

• Hence permanent sort, set and shine leads to

permanent standardisation.

• By asking why 5 times the underlying cause is

determined and can then (hopefully) be
prevented.
 Preventing 3S failure

• The strategies of JIT are especially applicable:

– Only what is needed
– In the correct amounts
– As required

• Poka-Yoke techniques to ensure that errors do not occur are

needed

• FMEA techniques allow us to discover how initial SET

conditions can be lost, we can also record what does go on as
part of the patrols and rectify them through five-min 5S.

• Elimination of equipment, tooling can also be used to obtain

permanent 5S, Design for X techniques are more than often
req’d.
 Interactive bit

• Select a particular area and product, using the 5

whys

– Can any activities requiring tooling be changed to just

hand operation

– Can dust, swarf etc be collected using chutes and

buckets

– Do parts arrive in the correct order, use the 5 why nots

 Sustain

• Without discipline to sustain 5S, the previous status quo

of muck and madness

• Discipline is a bad description, making 5S a habit is

more accurate

• The Sustain pillar differs from the previous 4 in that it

is not directly measurable not implemented through a
set number of techniques

• It differs from the 4th pillar by winning hearts and

minds and getting staff to want to apply best practice.
 5S is only one form of
Continuous Improvement
• 5S forms part of the bigger picture of best
practice and the Lean or JIT implementation

• 5S should form part of a change program that

– Is right for your company
– Acts as a part of distinct improvement program
– Many areas are merely reinterpretations of best
practice (i.e. minimise WIP and Inventory)
 Interactive bit

• What should the company do to

encourage 5S take – up (other than cash)
– Tickets to an England match game if the 5S targets
are met?
– Holiday vouchers if targets met?
– Suggestion…

• What should be done to those who are

ruining it for others
–?
 Typical Implementation

• Plan a course of Action

• Educate those involved
• Initial Evaluation on the area
• Start 5S in an area
• Measure the results
• Maintain the gains
• Role out to other areas
 Comments

• 5S is a gradual process

• It is necessary for everyone to get involved

• 5S shows efficiency over time, hence its important to

get before and after pictures.

• Deal with resistance quickly, take time to convince

negative opinions and deal with them sooner rather than
later.
 More Comments

• Managers team leaders need to understand and be

convinced and committed to 5S.

• The principles of Kaizen are taught to aid in this

understanding. In turn later to the 5S implementors

• The 5S improvement is initiated by breaking the factory

down into logical teams, headed by a 5S champion of
above.

• Senior management need to take and be seen to take a

hands on approach, they also inform on the fundamental
5S rules that now apply.
 Even More Comments

• Over a set period, say 1 S/month each team has to turn

ideas into reality.

• A 5S patrol regularly checks 5S progress, based upon

 
checklists and evaluation sheets.

• The patrols                                      

members rotate to include members from
different teams.

• A form of recognition is provided to those areas that

score the highest in the patrols checks. This therefore
requires that goals to be set for 5S achievements

• A 5S coordinator deals with specific issues, equipment

& consumables purchase for example, training etc
 Don’t it stop

• The final goal of the 5S programme is to turn what is at

first, a new project into an everyday activity.

• The goal of the 5S coordinator, management & senior

staff and patrols is to make this come about.

• Any slip or twist to the 5S system will tell shop floor

staff that seriousness is not the order of the day. A firm
hand is required to steer the company where you want it
to go.

• Management who fail to adopt the 5S strategy should be

dealt with firmly and quickly.
 Most important point

• Supervisors are key to ensuring that 5S

occurs on the shop floor

• Without giving them the clout and

training to realise change, 5S
implementations will (always?) see-saw
from 3S to the bad old days.