The 5S housekeeping environment

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Summary of the unit

This unit covers the competencies needed to facilitate and improve the 5S housekeeping environment. In a typical scenario, an organisation is implementing or practicing a 5S approach to housekeeping. While 5S places much of the responsibility on team members, team leaders need to support, encourage and facilitate effective 5S in the workplace. The manufacturing environment for 5S may include the warehouse, tool shop, office, etc.

Key Learning points

5S or the 5 pillars of the visual workplace (Hirano 1995) is a systematic process of workplace organisation. When we ask manufacturing people about the 5S's, most of them say they don't think the 5S's are relevant. "That's just a system of keeping things organised and clean? The 5S's are not simply eliminating toolboxes and cleaning up.

While the concepts are easy to understand, most companies have not implemented them. Implementation of the 5S's create many benefits such as higher quality, lower costs, reliable deliveries, and improved safety…to name a few. These benefits are clearly relevant to any manufacturer, and they are not had simply by eliminating toolboxes and cleaning up.

The intent of 5S is to have only what you need available in the workplace, a designated place for everything, a standard way of doing things, and the discipline to maintain it. Created in Japan, the 5S's are: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and shitsuke.

Translated to English, we have:

• Sort - remove all items from the workplace that are NOT needed for current production.
• Set in Order - arranging needed items so that they are easy to find and put away. Items used often are placed closer to employees.
• Shine - making sure everything is clean, functioning, and ready to go.
• Standardise - the method you use to maintain the first 3S's.
• Sustain - making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures.

The following is a list of the essential information that the learner must know and apply when they complete this unit. 5S is the foundation of lean manufacturing. It concentrates on eliminating waste and improving overall productivity, safety and customer satisfaction.

Sort needed from unneeded

• Identify all items in the work area
• Distinguish between essential and non-essential items
• Place any non-essential item in a appropriate place, not in the work area
• Regularly check that only essential items are in the work area

Set the workplace in order

• Identify the best location for each essential item
• Place each essential item in its assigned location
• After use immediately return each essential item to its assigned location
• Regularly check that each essential item is in its assigned location

Shine the work area

• Keep the work area clean and tidy at all times
• Conduct regular housekeeping activities during shift
• Ensure the work area is neat, clean and tidy at both beginning and end of shift

Standardise activities

• Follow procedures
• Follow checklists for activities where available
• Keep the work area to specified standard

Sustain the 5S system

• Clean up after completion of job and before commencing next job or end of shift
• Identify situations where compliance to standards is unlikely and take actions specified in procedures
• Inspect work area regularly for compliance to specified standard
• Recommend improvements to lift the level of compliance in the workplace

5S Implementation

As many organisations attempt to become truly "World Class", the first question facing management. Is often where to begin their lean journey. The answer is simple - the 5S program. The 5s's are: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Depending on a company's situation, the 5S's can be implemented in different ways.

However, many companies have found success using the following 7 steps:

1. MCj03039030000[1]Organise the program committee.
2. Develop a plan for each S.
3. Publicly announce the start of the program.
4. Provide training and education to employees.
5. Select a day in which everybody cleans up his/her own working area.
6. Evaluate the results of 5S.
7. Perform Self-Examination and Take Corrective Actions.

5S, like all other quality and prevention initiatives, requires commitment from top management and participation by everyone in the organisation. Requiring plans tailored to each facility, a 5S program cannot be implemented using a "one-size-fits-all" approach. 5S is best implemented very gradually over a period of time. Because implementing five S can be such an overwhelming task, some companies decide to institute it department-by-department.

SORT

Sometimes the hardest part about 5S is actually getting started! The first step, "Sorting", means to sort through everything in each work area and keep only what is necessary for current production.

Materials, tools, equipment and supplies that are not frequently used should be moved to a separate, common storage area. Items that are not used any more should be discarded or recycled. Don't keep things around just because they might be used someday. Sorting is the first step in making a work area tidy. It makes it easier to find the things you need and frees up additional space.

As a result of the sorting process you will eliminate (or repair) broken equipment and tools. Obsolete fixtures, moulds, jigs, scrap material, waste and other unused items.

The goal and process of the first "S" is organisation. The sort process distinguishes needed items from unneeded items and removes the latter.

We also need to use a tool known as "Red-tagging." This involves the team going through all items (tools, equipment, material, etc.) and asking the question: "Do I need this to do my job on a regular basis?" Items that are used very infrequently or not used should be red-tagged. After determining what is actually needed, update all documentation to reflect the needed parts.

Red Tagging

Red tagging is an essential method for reducing clutter in the workplace. Work with your team to identify and establish criteria for what to remove and where to put it. Assign a team leader who is responsible for deciding to keep or dispose of items you are not sure about. For each item identified ask three simple questions:

1. Why is this item here?
2. Why in this quantity?
3. Why in this place?

Red-tagging items allow workers to set aside and evaluate items and information in terms of their usefulness and frequency of use. The items and information are returned, stored elsewhere, sold, given away, or thrown away. When red tagging is completed, problems and annoyances in the workflow are reduced, communication between workers is improved, product quality is increased, and productivity is enhanced.

Use the checklist in the workbook for activity 1 to identify the current situation in your work area:

1. Train the crew in Sort - What is required for current production,
2. Agree on the rules of inventory,
3. Assign areas of responsibility,
4. Create a Red Tag Area,
5. Schedule a time for the Red Tagging to be done,
6. Conduct the Red Tagging,
7. Dispose of items of clearly no value,
8. Move Tagged items to the Red Tag Area
9. Record Tagged Items on a Log and notify others of the tagged items,
10. Dispose of unclaimed items after an agreed interval has lapsed.

Sort in Summary

• 5S is a cultural change activity so involve the entire crew
• Define ongoing responsibilities
• Use the RED TAG program to get rid of the clutter throughout the factory
• Review inventory levels right across the value chain - can they be reduced?
• Create maximum impact - success breeds success.

The second "S" (Set in Order) requires you to organise things so that they are easy to use and label them so that anyone can find, use, and return them to the correct place easily. Visual controls should be used where practicable in this activity; a visual control is any communication device used in the work environment that tells you at a glance how work should be done.

"Set in order" organises a work area for the maximum possible efficiency.

Organisation and orderliness work best when they are implemented together. Set in order ensures that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Labelling is mostly for other people who need what is in the area, when the areas "owner" is away. The benefit is economy of time and motion. When orderliness is implemented, there is no wasted human energy or excess inventory.

The Eight Wastes

To eliminate production waste, it is important to understand exactly what waste is and where it exists. While there are a great variety of products being manufactured in different facilities, the typical wastes found in manufacturing environments are quite similar. For each type of waste, there is a strategy to reduce or eliminate its effects, and improve overall performance and quality.

One of the first steps in achieving the goal of becoming a competitive organisation is to identify and attack the Eight Wastes.

1. Defective Products - rejects, rework and customer complaints re products
2. Overproduction - making more products than what customer needs right now & storing
3. Waiting - Parts are not available, missing information for job, equipment breakdown.
4. Not using your people Waste of human potential or talent.
5. Transport Waste- unnecessary movement of work/goods/products. eg. Double handling
6. Inventory/ Stock - any supply in excess of process requirements to supply JIT
7. Motion Waste- unnecessary movement by people eg. Looking for tools
8. Extra processing - extra finishing of a polished surface, hand finishing due to poor set up

There are eight steps to follow when setting in order:

Using visual controls organise equipment, tools, and material storage. Use labels on storage areas, floor space, cabinets and shelves. Labelling areas will make sure that no one will forget where things are stored and equipment will be returned to the correct location.