The 5S Pocket Guide

James Peterson, Roland Smith

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 1998
• eBook ISBN: 9781000687934
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Operations
• Index: Business

The 5s Pocket Guide is designed to enhance awareness of the principles behind the 5s System and identify its impact on improving efficiency and promoting a safe working environment. Using a condensed format, it outlines a disciplined methodology for implementing 5s, organized around a six-step method.

The six step method:

1. Planning a course of action
2. Educating the work group
3. Evaluating the work area
4. Initiating the 5S's
5. Measuring the results
6. Maintaining 5S activities

The innumerable benefits of the 5s System include shorter cycle times, increased floor space, reduced lead times and training cycles, lowered accident rates, enhanced communication, and less inventory. By employing this handy resource, organizations can more easily build employee awareness of 5s throughout their plants, leading to dramatic improvements in productivity, safety, and profitability.

CHAPTER

ONE

INTRODUCING THE 5S’s

5S DEPLOYMENT: BUILDING THE FOUNDATION FOR QUALITY

The purpose of this pocket guide is to enhance awareness of the principles behind the 5S’s and identify the impact that the 5S’s can have on improving efficiencies and promoting safe working environments. In addition, the 5S’s can be used in laying the groundwork for ISO registration and other quality initiatives. This pocket guide outlines a disciplined methodology for implementing the 5S’s in an organization and provides a sample baseline assessment tool that can be used as you deploy the 5S’s in your organization. Successfully deploying the 5S’s will improve organizational efficiencies and enhance overall performance.

5S DEFINITION

5S is a system of steps and procedures that can be used by individuals and teams to arrange work areas in the best manner to optimize performance, comfort, safety, and cleanliness.

Japanese S	Translation	English S
Seiri	Organization	Sorting
Seiton	Neatness	Simplifying Access
Seiso	Cleaning	Sweeping
Seiketsu	Standardization	Standardization
Shitsuke	Discipline	Self-Discipline

SUMMARY OF THE 5S’S

• Sorting (items in a work area). Sorting involves four primary activities:

– Determining the frequency of usage for every item in the workplace.

– Marking the items that are not used.

– Disposing of the nonessential items. This may include recycling, donation, or auction.

– Eliminating sources of clutter and unwanted items.

• Simplifying (access to needed items).

Simplifying access involved arranging items in the work area and establishing guidelines. In the sorting step, items are classified by frequency of usage. In the simplifying step, items are placed by frequency of usage.

• Sweeping (visually and physically). This includes three primary activities:

– Visually and physically sweeping the work area to ensure that everything is in its proper location. A visual sweep of the area should instantly tell you what is missing or misplaced and what action needs to be taken.

– Visually and physically sweeping to identify and correct repeated violations.

– Visually and physically sweeping to identify and correct repeated housekeeping problems. Tools out of place, manuals out of sequence, inventory in incorrect area.

• Standardizing (information about, and location of, needed items). Standardization makes information about locations more recognizable. If all labels on a shelf are formatted the same way, it is easier to visually sweep through the labels. If procedures for retrieving and returning items and information are uniform, it is easier for everyone in the work group to locate them quickly.

• Self-discipline (needed to sustain the 5S process). Self-discipline is the routine practice of all the steps that precede it. Self-discipline is having all associates doing their part to carry out the 5S actions they have agreed upon.

5S BENEFITS

Some of the payoffs of successful deployment of the 5S’s include:

• Reduced cycle times.

• Increased floor space.

• Improved working conditions.

• Improved work team performance.

• Established operating procedures.

• Reduced lead times.

• Improved inventory management.

• Improved customer satisfaction.

• Reduced training cycles.

• Improved database management.

• Increased profitability.

• Reduced number of accidents.

• Lowered incident rates.

• Improved morale.

• Enhanced communication.

• Increased adherence to established standard operating procedures.

• Reduced search time.

• Reduced inventory costs.

• Improved delivery times.

• Improved access to information.

• Enhanced cross-shift communication.

• Enhanced levels of commitment.

WHO IS USING THE 5S’S

Many organizations—from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies—have adopted the 5S’s to improve productivity and performance. Such organizations include Boeing, Boise Cascade, Milliken, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, and Micron, and many more are exp...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter One: Introducing the 5S’s
• Chapter Two: Beginning 5S Implementation
• Chapter Three: Initiate the 5S’s
• Chapter Four: Continuous Improvement of the 5S Process