1. THE FIVE 'S'
We’ve recognized for many years that good housekeeping is fundamental to a safe working
environment. An organized workplace takes this foundation to a higher level. Why should there
be botheration of putting extra effort to be organized? After all, there are computer systems and
information technology to help organize daily lives; moreover, today’s work pace is frantic, with
constant change and personnel turnover. The problem is that in today’s information society, we
get far more information than is needed, and it often collects in our offices, files and storage
rooms. A hectic pace with constant change appears to be part of everyone’s future.
These are the very reasons why moving toward an organized workplace is so critical in today’s
fast-paced business world. Things don’t get better automatically, and organization will help to
reduce stress. It can also prevent "shortcuts." When people have problems, they often take
shortcuts to get a job done. Probability will eventually catch up with those who do not take time
to do things the correct way. When an injury or problem occurs the typical question asked is why
some person didn’t follow prescribed operating procedures. Factors like the stress of getting the
job done, not finding the right tool, having to walk too far to do something properly or having to
wait are easily overlooked causal elements. It’s also common to find that the person did not
know the correct way to do the task. Management often resorts to more training, warnings and
use of personal protective equipment to deal with the situation.
A more enlightened approach is to organize the workplace where employees can do a job quickly
and safely. Sounds good – but how to do that with the crush of deadlines and ever-increasing
workload may seem insurmountable. A process proven for decades in Japanese manufacturing
industry is the process known as 5S and has five easy steps that can be applied in any
environment. These are the fundamental steps which help in establishing and maintaining
planned and preventive maintenance programs. 5S is ideal for those who wish to move to the
concept of "operator-owner" where a machine operator is responsible for basic maintenance. In
Japan, they often say that improvement activities begin and end with the 5S Program. That
means the company who applies it, knows that the environment is the source of profits as well as
the better products and services. Elimination of waste is important in any organisation for which
a concerted effort is required to be made to influence the way work is performed. One of the
important techniques employed to eliminate waste is the method of 5S's. The 5S approach is a
continual effort to eliminate waste by creating working conditions that are clean, safe and
organised. The 5S Philosophy focuses on effective work place organization and standardized
work procedures. 5S simplifies your work environment, reduces waste and non-value activity
while improving quality efficiency and safety. The approach is linked to Total Productive
Maintenance and ISO 9000 - it is a prevention based approach, involving the whole workforce.
The 5S approach is more sophisticated than housekeeping, yet its impact is dramatic and
convinces people that things are better. These technique is more than the common "Good
Housekeeping", because it produces a positive change of attitude among the workers. It also
aims to upgrade human relations and employee's morale, improvement consciousness and also
learn that it needs people involvement into a teamwork spirit. The name refers to the five
Japanese terms used to summarize the rules used to implement the method.
Seiri - Housekeeping (sort, tidy up, arrange in order, remove unwanted items, proper
arrangement) It is a simple process of identifying items in the work place which are necessary
and those which are not and then getting rid of those that are not! It means to distinguish between
the necessary and unnecessary items. The first S focuses on eliminating unnecessary items from
the workplace. An effective visual method to identify these unneeded items is called red tagging.
A red tag is placed on all items not required to complete your job. These items are then moved to
a central holding area. This process is for evaluation of the red tag items. Occasionally used
items are moved to a more organized storage location outside of the work area while unneeded
items are discarded. Sorting is an excellent way to free up valuable floor space and eliminate
such things as broken tools, obsolete jigs and fixtures, scrap and excess raw material. The Sort
process also helps prevent the JIC job mentality (Just In Case.)