The Japanese 5s system is an essential and powerful tool of the Toyota Production System.
The 5s concept is a simple system that your organization cannot afford No to implement. Save time, save money and avoid mistakes and defects. Whether you are interested in 5s lean manufacturing, 5s office or 5s housekeeping, you can enjoy endless rewards with 5s implementation.
DONE:
GM production was 3 to 4 times the cost of production at TMC
Why? Efficiency. Adopt TMC tools and save a lot of money and hassle.
BACKGROUND OF THE JAPANESE 5S
5s comes from 5 Japanese words that mean order (seiri), neatness (seiton), brightness (seiso), cleanliness (seiketsu), and discipline (shitsuke). In English, read 5s:
1. Fate
2. Set in order
3. Shine
4. Standardize
5. Sustain (maintain the discipline to continue with the process)
THE BENEFITS
A good lean 5s program ensures:
- A better and safer work environment
- Improved efficiency
- Elimination of waste and unnecessary items.
- Reduction of defects and machine breakdowns.
- Less stress and frustration.
SUCCESS
“Every day, our priority is 2s.” says the manager of a successful Toyota supplier plant in Japan. “With a good 2 (sorting and tidying), we easily avoid accidents, create an efficient environment, avoid clutter, save time locating items, and keep employees motivated. We easily avoid unnecessary spending and can identify waste that should be removed.” removed. A good 5 is the starting point for good kaizen.”
WHY YOU NEED 5S
Now here’s a great example of why your organization needs 5s: A design engineer at a manufacturing company I used to work for had some bad news. He discovered that his mistake had cost the company $9,700! How did that happen? Well, his office was, like many, disorganized. One day, he took a design that was ready for production. But he grabbed the wrong one. Production began and it wasn’t until a month later that the problem was discovered. What a waste of time and money. And how embarrassing.
THE PRINCIPLES
Let’s break each step down:
SPELL OUT
In the sorting process, you decide which items are essential to get the job done. Everything else has to go.
TIDY
In the next step, a home must be assigned to all the necessary items.
SHINE
In this step, all team members engage in a big cleanup.
STANDARDIZE
This is an essential step and an absolute necessity to ensure long-term gains from lean 5s. A regular schedule of the above 3 activities should be carried out and put into practice.
HOLD
This can be the hard part. Again, to ensure lasting results, the 5s activity must continue and standard practices must be followed.
For organizations to not only survive, but thrive and thrive, a lean mindset and strategy must be adopted. Lean 5s is one of the best and easiest tools I have seen. You just need to know how to do it, effort and commitment.
