Intro to 5S

We recommend and we are adherents to 5S methodology as it is a common sense and easily explained form of a Lean methodology. 5S is easily adapted, with some thought, to most businesses and the components of any business and we will give examples as required but in particular will look at management and administrative functions while having a major focus on the core business.

There is a school of thought that can be attributed to the internet company Quality Assurance Solutions that 5S goes way back to the 16th century and the methodology was employed by Dutch ship builders to build their ships in a matter of hours rather than taking days or weeks to build their vessels.

In modern times, 5S is a system that was originally developed in Japan, to be applied in production facilities to increase productivity and therefore profitability.

The modern history of 5S begins at the end of World War II when Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kiichiro together with Toyota engineer Taiichi Ohno, who developed the 5S methodology or what they called the Total Production System or TPS, wanted to firstly recommence usual operations after the war and best utilize their workforce. These three representatives of the Toyota Company looked at the assembly line processes at the Ford Motor Company in the USA and they also looked at inventory system used at the Piggly Wiggly super markets.

When forming their thinking of how their concepts could become a methodology, they genuinely wished that when implemented that the 5S methodology would offer every employee a level of importance within the company. They further wanted to ensure that every job in the company was fundamental to the entire process and indeed the end product.

Waste was to be kept a minimal levels and the workplace was to be organized in a way that produced timely outcomes. They hoped that by combing these factors the result would be legitimate employee pride.

One of the famous quotes from Taiichi Toyoda is,

“All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes”. - Taiichi Toyoda

What do the 5 S’s represent?

As the 5S methodology was introduced by the Toyota Motor Company, it is, as expected that they original 5 S’s were written in the Japanese language. When the 5S methodology made its way to the United States and other Western countries, the 5 S’s were transliterated into English. With 5S now being practiced in Viet Nam, the 5 S’s have been further transliterated into Viet Namese. We accept these as the standard terms although we have some concern about the fourth S, Standardize. Any good trainer or practitioner of the 5S methodology will be aware of this and take additional care when introducing, explaining and implementing S4.

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From the above table you can see that 5S is a 5 point, common sense methodology that can be easily explained, taught and implemented with your entire work forces input. In fact, all employees’ must be involved in the implementation process. The company conducting the 5S methodology implementation must aim for 100% employee “buy in”.

“The standard you walk by is the standard you are willing to accept”. - Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison AO, Australian Army Chief

A successful 5S implementation will produce a work place where the individual work areas are correctly delineated, work stations will be maintained in a fully functional way where the necessary tools are at the ready and properly stored. Stores rooms are easy to use as everything is labelled and there will be minimum inventory or zero excess stock. The productions lines will only produce what is needed to be produced when it is due to be produced leading to minimal product inventory.

A successful 5S implementation will give you this and much more, a visual work place where any problems are instantly recognizable hence instantly addressed.

The Other S’s

It also should be noted that there is a school of thought that 5S has now increased to 6S and that safety is the new “S”. Safety is an integral part of all the “S’s”, an aspect that must be explained and followed at all times and should be instructed to all workers from S1 through S5.

We also like to add a 7th S and recommend that you do to - SMILE

Continuous Improvement

5S is all about the elimination of WASTE. What are the WASTES that 5S will eliminate?

· Walking to get equipment, to return equipment, to get a drink, etc.,

· Searching for Equipment

· Operations that would be best suited elsewhere

· Excessive Inventory

· Bending, twisting and turning

“Time waste is different from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material”. – Henry Ford, Inventor

Above all, 5S is Continuous Improvement and should be part of your Business Plan in that it battles away, striving to provide your company with ever-increasing added value to your products. All this by way of having “100%” employee involvement in the reduction of WASTE and those annoying associated costs that we all sometimes think cannot be eliminated.