5S System - Work Place Design and Upkeep (Facilities Industrial Engineering)

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Online Education/Training Session on "Effective Industrial Engineering and Productivity Management."

I developed an online education/training session on "Effective Industrial Engineering and Productivity Management." I can present the session in one hour, one and half hour or two-hour long sessions. The sessions will be valuable when company industrial engineers and other engineers and managers attend as a group. Industrial engineers require active cooperation and participation of other engineers and managers in their studies and projects. Hence a common presentation and discussion on effectiveness will be very useful.

Supporting Information.

Effective Industrial Engineering - Some Thoughts by Narayana Rao K.V.S.S.

Effective industrial engineering has to satisfy management about the contribution it made to the organization year after year.

The prime contribution of IE has to be cost reduction through productivity improvement.

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2025/07/effective-industrial-engineering-some.html

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Japanese companies are using scientific management and industrial engineering from 1911. In the process of using these subjects developed in USA, Japanese brought in various innovations. 5S is one such innovative method. This method was developed to implement two principles related to efficiency.

Principle: There should be a definite and fixed place for all tools and materials (See Principles of Motion Economy).

Principle:  Layout must facilitate efficiency

The System

5S is a management system  of workplace organization. We can also describe it is work place orderliness or factory or plant orderliness.

In industrial engineering, processes and operations in the processes are popular items for study and improvements. But there are certain areas which are the factory level or complete production system level, which need study and improvement. 5S is the Japanese way of keeping factory and facilities clean and visible. Speed depends on visibility of every tool and accessory being visible and in being in a known place.

5S's constitute the system and in English they are:

Sort
Set in Order
Shine
Standardize
Sustain

Sort is a process of removing every non essential item from the workplace. Some of the examples of non essential items on shopfloors are  tables, benches, cabinets, tools, inventory, cleaning supplies, rags, and documents. All of these extra items do get in the way of efficient production.

Set in Order is the process of organizing the workplace items.  For example, all tools used in a setup on a machine should be placed as close as possible to where they will be used. There should be a place for everything and everything should always be in its place except when it is in the hands of the operator.

Shine is the third “S”. It is the process of cleaning the work area and any machinery or equipment in it. The ideal manufacturing place has to keep the equipment in the same or better shape than when it was handed over to it. Prior to 5S concept, many companies allowed their machinery to deteriorate due to neglect.  Japanese Manufacturing systems, employing the concepts of 5S, TPM (Total Productive Maintenance), and Kaizen, keeps machinery producing the same way or better than the day it was received, even after many years of use.

Standardize is the process of making the first three S’s a habit through standard operating procedures and diagrams. Companies who have not implemented the standardization process, have gone  through cleaning and organizing systems over the years only to see it slip away back to cluttered facility. Standardize is also an important component of the 5S system. For example, if a machine is to be wiped clean at the end of a shift, it should be done every single day without fail and it should be made part of standard work routine of the operator and time has to be allocated in the daily time allotment sheet given to him by the scheduling or dispatching clerk.

Sustain, the last S, is the activity of management whereby it evaluates the work place and takes control actions whenever there are deviations from the standard operating procedures.

Benefits

Implementation of 5S reduces inefficiencies caused by poor housekeeping and organization. 5S facilitates some other initiatives like  quick changing of dies. The order set in place with 5S makes searching and picking tools very efficient and fast. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) must have 5S as a base element for further improvement.

5S is a system that finally enables manufacturers to once and forever maintain a “customer ready” facility at all times.

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10 minute video

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References

http://www.1stcourses.com/5s.html

Articles on 5S

Industrial Engineer, August 2009

5S is the little big secret for improving health care, Matt Morrisette, pp.34-38

Morrisette exhorts "Mindset first, action second."

Change requires the mind with four distinct belief systems. The first is called Toppa. In Japanese it means that first step to solve the problem is to be taken to find the solution. The second belief is in kaizen - incremental and continuous improvement. The third is poka yoke. The fourth is houshou. Houshou is recogninzing and rewarding successes and successful persons who achieve something in the right direction.  Morrisette gives the 5S steps as separate, sort, shine, standardize and sustain.

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Updated on 5.9.2023, 3.8.2022,  24.5.2022,  3 Sep 2021,  7 August 2021

20 May 2020,  3 June 2019, 17 November 2013