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(+)+(+) The Quick Changeover e-letter
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Vivienne N. Henry is a Chemical Engineer and a Lean Sigma Expert with a top 5 pharmaceutical manufacturing company. She uses the Lean Sigma toolbox on a daily basis. She has experience in process design and optimization, troubleshooting and operations.

Any comments, questions or feedback should be directed to john@... and I will forward them to her.

SOME THOUGHTS ON...

5S

What is 5S?

The 5S method is a Lean Manufacturing tool frequently used in the workplace to make it more clean and organized. The 5S method is frequently used to make the working environment clutter free thus easing the access to materials and maintaining the area clean. The 5S methodology can be used in all different places like for example: a manufacturing unit, work office and even at home. It is important that the level in which the 5S method will be applied is defined from the beginning. The area where the 5S method will be applied can be as general as at corporate level or as specific to only one drawer.

The methodology is composed of 5Ss:

Sort
Store
Shine
Standardize
Sustain

 

Let's look at each of these steps in depth.

 

SORT

 

The first step in the 5S methodology is to identify everything that you want to get rid of. In this initial step it is important to identify what is needed in the work area in order to perform the job. For example, you do not want to remove a hand tool that is used on a daily basis. The sorting process is done by placing a red tag on all the things what you want to eliminate from that specific area. A red tag is used to capture the information related to the material or equipment you want to dispose of. For example, you could have identified that you have been storing a printer for a long period of time and dont have any need for it. You can decide if you want to donate this article to charity, give it to another department that needs it or just simply throw it away. The sorting process is one that needs to be defined by the team and what works for them.

 

Once you have identified all the articles and things that you want to eliminate from your work area, you need to place it in the Red Tag Zone. The Red Tag Zone is an area clearly identified where all of the articles that need to be discarded are placed. This is visual indication of all the articles that are going to be discarded. It is important that action takes place. You dont want to keep all of these items for a long period of time since you would have only moved the mess from one area to another. You want to get rid of these articles as quickly as possible.



STORAGE



A place for everything and everything in its place.

Once we have sorted all of the articles in our 5S area, the next step is to decide where they will be stored. It is important that the users of the articles or equipments in the 5S area are part of this exercise. You need to understand the frequency the materials are being used. You do not want to place an article in a hard to reach area when it is used on frequent basis. During this step all the articles need to have a clearly identified place. This will aid the users in placing the article once it has been used in the designated place thus maintaining the area clutter free and making it easier to the next user to find.

 

SHINE

 

Once everything has been sorted and stored we proceed to shine. During this step you want to make sure that the area is clean. You want to identify why the area is not clean. For example if there is an oil leak in the floor you should clean it up, but you need to go deeper than that. You need to identify the source of the leak and fix it. It will not aid the process if in a week after the 5S program has been in place that you find another oil leak in the floor. Maintaining a clean area will make the working environment more pleasant for your workforce.

 

STANDARDIZE

 

After the first of the 5S activities have been completed, a standard way of maintaining the program needs to be defined. The 5S program is one that will be used by different people throughout the organization. For this matter, procedures, policies and guidelines need to be developed in order to ensure that everyone is maintaining the program. The use of procedures and guidelines will aid the area employees to easily access and store the equipment and can be applied to everyone in the area.

 

SUSTAIN

 

The fifth and final S of the program is Sustain. This is the most important step in the 5S methodology. You can carry out all of the previous steps and if the program is not sustainable it will go back to its original state, it is only a matter of time. A monitoring program should be developed in order to assure that the program is being maintained. During this step the roles and functions of the personnel are described. The personnel can be used to monitor the area and perform audits in order to assure that the program is ongoing. A radar chart could be used to track 5S performance.

 

The 5S method has been proven to be successful in a variety of industrial environments. Companies that have applied the 5S method in their laboratories have seen the benefit of this program by having all the materials clearly identified, stored and clean thus making the analysis faster since scientist do not waste time in searching for instruments and materials throughout the lab. In a plant environment the 5S program has demonstrated the accessibility of materials for operators when they are performing a major cleaning. Operators know where everything is and know where to store it once they are done. This improves overall effectiveness. 

 
Since the holidays are just around the corner, this will be a great time to practice the 5S methodology at your home. By applying this tool you will be able to organize all of your holiday decoration and will commence a great New Year

TIP OF THE MONTH

Continuing the theme of 5S, my tip of the month is a book recommendation. 5S For Operators is one of the "Shopfloor" series from Productivity Press www.productivitypress.com As with all of the shopfloor books, it provides an excellent introduction and over view of 5S along with a lot of information on how to implement a program.

Best,

John R Henry CPP

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