Do you Know What Is The 5'S?

       

About 5S:

5S is the core system in TPM philosophy and it is based on five Japanese words that begin with 'S'.It is the secret of success of the Japanese industries. It focuses on the effective organisation of workplace and helps to standardise work procedures. It is the way to involve all associates in the ownership and employees to their workplaces. It also helps to create and maintain the efficiency of human & relevant resources. 5S is the key solution for all the problems that we encounter at our workplace. Some problems are listed here, viz. high absenteeism of employees, demotivation among them, disordered or cluttered environment and accidents due to simple mistakes.

In simple form, 5'S is a housekeeping technique that helps us to improve our productivity, quality, and safety. In order to achieve bar in these fields, everybody must have the conductive working environment and the participative culture. If you really want to grow your business to desirable level then you must think about 5'S philosophy and more than that it should implement thoroughly in all levels from working men at the grass root level to the top management or even the owner.

Methodology of 5S:

1) Seiri (Sorting):

Seiri is the first word from 5S technique and it means sorting of things in proper way. To implement that you have to decide which things are needed and in what amount, and then remove unnecessary clutter. All tools, gauges, the material should be classified first and then stored in the proper manner. Try to remove items which are broken, unusable or only occasionally used.

The first 'S' focuses on eliminating the unnecessary things from the workplace and try to build the maintained layout of the workplace. '48 Hours Rule' and 'Red Tag Technique' are two basic methods for improving the sorting.

48 Hours Rule:

For improving the Seiri (first 'S') 48 hours rule is very important in the sorting of desirable and unwanted items. The things which are not required immediately or within next 48 hours are placed away from the regular workplace, to reduce or eliminate clutter in sense of  making work environment well organised. This rule is widely used in the most of the industries.

Red Tag Technique:

It's the another technique to make your workplace well organised. Though it looks simple and you would think that, what's the difficulty in tagging abnormalities? Here is the main problem, that is  people working over there have the mindset and even abnormalities present in that particular workplace are none of the problems for them or they have the habit of these things.

Red Tag Technique is about giving the red coloured labels (Red Tags) to everybody working in that environment and ask them to go through every single item & machine, and to gather information about required things and the statistics also, and to add Red Tags to unwanted items. For wavering items, place the suspended items in the Red Tag Area i.e. where we want to store clutter or unwanted items, for one week. Allow the workers to re-evaluate the needed items and bring the return to the workplace, if and only required.

According to this technique high priority items that need daily in regular practice or in two days are located at the workplace. Average priority items are placed in the offline area near the workplace, that needed weekly or within a month. Less-priority items are stored away from the workplace or in Red Tag Area, that needed yearly. Remaining items should bring to scrap or made available only by ordering from outside companies in order to reduce inventory carrying the cost per annum.  

2) Seiton (Set In Order/ Systemise):

Second 'S' from 5S technique i.e. Seiton, deals with efficient and effective storage method and systemisation of the workplace to the well-designed layout. Some of the examples for following good Seiton culture are painting the floor and drawing outlines to workplaces and machine locations, modular shelves for appropriate arrangement of tools and required gadgets, cabinets for essential things like a trash can, brooms, mop, and buckets. Use of different types of tape, labels, stickers may help to make your workplace even better. Finally, ensure that everything is available as it needed and at the point of application. Apply 'Rule of Seiton' to check performance about systemisation at your workplace.

Rule Of Seiton (Rule Of 'PEEP'):

The rule of Seiton says you have to make a place for everything and everything in its place.

Checkpoints To Make Your Workplace Systemised:
Position of the required workplace and the storage area is marked clearly.

• Classification and appropriate storage of tools according to the frequency of use and marking them for the convenience at the time of retrieval. Use labels and coding to make this task easy.
• Correctly stacked or placed pallets, racks, and shelves.
• Easily accessible safety equipment like the fire extinguisher and medical first aid.
• Floor in good condition and marked according to the well designed layout.
• Emergency preparedness and response plan availability and the training about safety awareness.

3) Seiso (Shine/ Cleanliness):

Once you eliminated the clutter and junk that had been clogging your work-area and identified necessary items, the next step is to thoroughly clean the workplace. Seiso or Shine is about cleaning everything at your workplace taking every minute detail into account. If you had done well with 1S and 2S this step is going to be very easy. The workers will also begin to notice the changes in the equipment and facility locations about the air, oil & dirt, coolant leaks, fatigue, breakages and misalignments in equipment. With the involvement of them, further problems like machine failure or shutdown can be reduced or eliminated.

Rule Of Seiso:

Rule of Seiso is the rule of cleaning with meaning. According to this rule, the work area, and the whole facility should be cleaned in such way that the best work is

performed every time. Cleaning with meaning is said as,

'Cleaning for detect, detect to inspect, inspect to correct, and correct to perfect.'

Checkpoints For Seiso/ To Make Your Workplace Spotless:

Identify and eliminate causes of dirt and grime i.e. remove the need of cleaning though you are going to clean and shine your workplace on regular basis.

• Sweep out and dust off the contaminations.
• Divide workplace into zones for shine.
• Prepare teams and define responsibilities and monitor the whole process of cleaning.
• Define sole responsibilities for individuals about equipment, tools and surrounding. Provide training about autonomous maintenance (JH) and motivate them to perform according to standard procedures.
• Always focus on removing the need of cleaning.

4) Seiketsu (Standardise):

After implementing the first three steps in 5'S' methodology in the proper manner, you have to make standards for the all of three i.e. Seiri, Seiton, and Seiso. Allow all employees to be part of the development of such standards. Make the use of statistic methods and data or information gathered from above three steps.

Develop the maintenance system for the all of three, also develop standard procedures, schedules, check-sheets and central monitoring system for all. Standardise all work-related parameters and audit them on regular basis. Due to standardisation, consistency in methods is developed and abnormalities can find out very easily.

Following Parameters Have To Be Standardised:

* Operating procedures or methods

* Dimensional values, limits, tolerance

* Work locations i.e. height, width, length

* Environmental and health-related factors like temperature,  light, and  humidity

* Safety parameters and chemical exposure

*  Workflow or line balancing with the help of cycle time, lead time and takt time and automation.

5)Shitsuke (Sustain/ Self Discipline):

Shitsuke is the most difficult 'S' among all 5'S' to implement and achieve, because of sustaining the good practices forever is quite difficult and the participation of every person is required in order to sustain what we have done for all above steps. The Strong mindset should be created among all the people for successful implementation of this methodology and should become the habit of them.

Shitsuke can be maintained by the empowerment of people, commitment towards it and self-discipline. Always focus on defining a new status quotient and standardising work. Shitsuke means inoculate courtesy, good habits, and culture in the workforce. Being consistent and making habit of 5'S' is required for growth of the organisation. 

If you are implementing and sustaining 5'S' then you must pass '30 Second Rule.' It is the quick deterministic tool to check your 5 'S' results.

30 Seconds Rule:

According to this rule, anyone must locate the item within 30 seconds. It is also applicable for electronic records and file retrieval.