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Lean Term: How To 5S

As you begin your Lean implementation, 5S is a good place to start. It helps develop the daily improvement mentality critical to a successful continuous improvement culture–doing the right thing each and every day.

Let’s start out by looking at some common situations in work areas where you can learn how to 5S. You may recognize some of these:

1. People are borrowing tools or office supplies from each other.

2. People spend time looking for materials in an office supply cabinet.

3. People walk to a shared workspace and then have to go back to their desk to get a hole punch.

4. Shared workspaces or break areas are in chaos—old coffee cups, spills, missing items, empty material bins, equipment in the wrong location. Debris accumulates around a copier, wire stripping workstation, or unpacking station.

5. People grab the wrong size wrench or the wrong part to put on a product.

6. People search for parts that are not in the right location. There’s an old joke, ‘You always find something in the last place you look for it.” The problem is that the last place sometimes takes quite a while to get to.

7. An investor looks at the clutter around a workstation and shakes her head.

8. A customer sees a disorganized office and takes his business elsewhere.

9. A person on the phone searches for a pencil while an irate customer continues to escalate.

If you learn how to 5S you will find that it is a simple and powerful method that really does work to help eliminate these conditions. It has a measurable impact on efficiency: by reducing the time it takes to find things, walking to get things, or preparing workspaces for use.

The intangible benefits of learning how to 5S come in a variety of ways. A supervisor observing an employee who is well-versed in 5S generally has more confidence in him.

Also think about investors and customers. Would you put your money into a company that looked completely disorganized? Would you buy your lunch from a filthy restaurant? Retail stores generally understand this point. They keep their stores orderly, prominently labeled, and are continually cleaning. They understand the financial impact of image.

People whose areas are 5S’ed also seem to be a little more relaxed than those working in chaos. They can always find just what they need in a crisis, preventing the increase of stress on the job.

I recommend using the following general steps as you learn how to 5S:

1. Sort/Simplify: Go over the area you are 5S’ing, and remove all of the clutter. A rule of thumb is to move anything that has dust on it out of the area. Another method is to use a time limit. For example, if it hasn’t been touched in the last week, move it out. Using a Red Tag campaign will support this step of the process. Items used infrequently should be moved to a centralized location. There, other people have a chance to claim the equipment to use in their area. After a set time, dispose of unneeded items. In effect, you are pulling out all of the unnecessary items from your work area, making it easier to find the remaining items that you do need.

2. Straighten/Systematic Arrangement: This step entails making designated locations for the tools and materials that support a process. These locations should be in a logical order, though that logic is dependent upon what you are doing. In some manufacturing cells, placing the tools in the order in which they are used make sense. In a mechanic’s shop, tools might logically be arranged in size order. You may decide that in an office environment, you are best served by arranging your area according to how frequently you use items. Some points to consider:

a. Make the location easy enough to replace tools and materials with your eyes closed. It should be a smooth, easy motion. Pegboards commonly require some manipulation to get tools into their holders. Files can also require some effort to fit into a file drawer.

b. Retrieving items should be, if possible, a one handed motion that ends up with the item in your hand oriented for use. Watch people picking up tools—there is frequently the twirl of the tool to get it ready to use—occasionally resulting in the ‘drop-pickup’ motion. As an example, pliers should be arranged with the handles facing you so you can immediately grab the tool as you would use it. Office supplies stored in drawers require one hand to open the drawer, and one hand to get the stapler. Instead, keep them out in the open on a small shelf or Velcro’ed^® to a wall.

c. People often overlook this point: It is a good idea to have multiples of the same tool if it speeds up the process, and if the cost is not prohibitive. It does not take many trips back to your desk for a stapler to realize one should be located by the printer as well. The same principle applies to manufacturing processes. If a person is frequently walking back to a shadowboard to get a tool, buy another one and keep one at each location where it is used.

d. If you own the equipment, you can modify it (safety permitting!) to fit your needs. You can attach anything you want to walls, glue hooks on equipment, etc. to make them easier to manage.

e. Organize according to Standard Work. Strategic placement and sequencing of tools and materials will encourage people to follow proper processes. Remember—Step 1 got rid of the tools that are not needed, which further aligns the way production teams do things. Make it so that following the process is the easiest way to use the workstation. The layout of tools and materials should flow with the process.

3. Scrub/Shine/Sweep/Spic and Span: Cleaning is the obvious part of this step. The less obvious parts are making cleaning easier and preventing messes in the first place. The less time your teams spend on cleaning tasks, the more time they will be available to do useful, productive tasks. Some tips:

a. Get rid of flat surfaces whenever possible. They collect things. Make do with as little space as you can.

b. Again, once you own something, you can do whatever you want to it. One simple thing to help keep clutter down on workspaces it to put a hole in a bench and put a trash can below it. It makes it much easier to drop waste into it.

c. Figure out how to prevent the waste in the first place. If you are frequently punching holes in documents and making a mess, consider using pre-punched paper. Eliminate cover sheets on fax machines and printers. If you are greasing or gluing something, talk to your engineering team and change the design to eliminate the need for grease and glue.

d. Make the process self-cleaning. Dirty processes (such as welding) frequently have hoods overhead to pull the debris out of the air and prevent it from accumulating elsewhere. A small nozzle can blow every few minutes to push wire strippings into a bin rather than having to manually clear them away. (Always think safety when blowing anything!) Pull-out trays can be installed under grinding stations to catch debris. Use your imagination.

4. Standardize/Stabilize: This step requires locking in your decisions, and is the part many people traditionally think of when visualizing how to 5S. The label maker and colored tape comes out. The intent should be to ensure that abnormal conditions LEAP out at you. If your stapler was borrowed, it should be apparent immediately because of an empty outline on your desk labeled ‘Stapler’. If your materials have not yet arrived in your work area, you should see an empty space on the floor, complete with label. An empty space on a shadowboard tells you immediately that a tool is missing. This standardization helps reduce the amount of time spent looking for items. Searching is particularly bad because not only does it waste time, but you never know how long it will take. Warning: Some people go over the top, and put a sticker on everything. One of the bum raps for 5S comes from seeing the ‘Phone’ sticker on the phone handset. 5S isn’t about labeling the obvious.

Standardizing has a few components to it:

a. Mark locations with outlines and labels.

b. Physically attach tools to a location whenever possible. Clip a flashlight to a chain where it is needed to check on fluid levels, or tether a pen to a bank counter.

c. Create cleaning processes and schedules. These should be written out. Often these instructions are in checklist form.

d. Assign ownership to 5S. If nobody is specifically responsible for areas, they tend to deteriorate.

5. Sustain/Self-Discipline: Far and above, this is the most difficult step. Conventional wisdom says that it takes 30 days of practice for something to become a habit. In those 30 days, often there are subtle lapses in the 5S of the area. Items get left out. Work is put in the wrong location. Piles accumulate on a desk. This is when audits are the most critical—in the period immediately following changes in the 5S of an area. 5S is most effective when leaders at all levels support the 5S process. First off, they should set the example. It is hard to maintain credibility when leaders don’t practice what they preach. Managers’ offices should be in some state of 5S. Not only will it set a good example, but it will actually help the manager. Audits do not end after 5S is established. Leaders should be constantly evaluating the 5S levels in their areas.

5S is one of the bedrocks of continuous improvement. Checklists, or sign-off sheets, (like you see for cleaning schedules in restaurant restrooms) are effective at helping ensure 5S is being maintained.

Now, 5S does not necessarily mean sterilize the environment. Personal items are completely acceptable, and should be encouraged if they help keep morale high and people happy. Job satisfaction is a critical condition that helps to make teams more effective.

Moderation is the key. Set some guidelines, and stick to them. A rule of thumb it to observe the person and see if the personal items get in the way of work. Items on top of a monitor are probably OK, unless they are constantly falling down, or encourage passers-by to stop and comment or play for a while. A point here is to observe with a mind that is looking for waste.

When beginning on a 5S campaign, start small. Get a few areas—maybe a common print/copy area, or a break room—in good order to have as an example.

Remember, 5S does have a cost, so don’t go overboard. The cost is not only the up-front cost. You will also have to maintain your efforts—replacing tape and labels. As people see the value of 5S, they will be less resistant to adding structure to their work areas.

Examples:

1. Some of the most common examples of 5S include shadowboards. These are pegboards that have either outlines of the tools, or a picture of the tool underneath them. When a tool is out of place, it becomes very apparent.

2. Cords present a special problem. Static cords (i.e. cords that just lay there, like power cords) should be bundled and kept off the floor. This makes cleanup easier, and prevents having to pick the cords up when sweeping or vacuuming. It also prevents accumulation of dirt. Dynamic cords that are moved around, such as those on a meter test lead, or on a USB cord that is pulled out for an occasional photo download, can be arranged to fall back through a hole in a desk to keep them out of the way. Weights can be attached to make retraction easier. (For more information you can also read this article on how to organize cables.)

3. A series of binders on a shelf can have a large diagonal line drawn across the spines to highlight when one is out of sequence or missing.

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Jeff Hajek.

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