5S AUDIT

Business Process Transformation can be enabled by many methodologies and tools. One of these is 5S.

5S provides a methodology for organising a productive work environment. This is a lean manufacturing tool enabling operators to improve their efficiency through organising their work place.

Five S is driven by 5 Pillars of improvement

The Five S pillars:

Sort (Seiri)

Set in Order (Seiton)

Shine (Seiso)

Standardize (Seiketsu)

Sustain (Shitsuke)

For More information on the 5S pillars see below.

One of the first stages is to carry out a 5S Audit. This involves the use of Reg tags to identify unused objects that are cluttering the work place.

What is 5S

5s is one of the first tools you will use in your Lean Manufacturing program. 5S is a tool and system that helps improve the environment and efficiency of the shop floor. The same ideas can be applied to the office environment  

Five S   Sort

The first stage is removing the rubbish and clutter, it also involves cleaning and generally making the area tidy. By getting rid of unused items space can be made and items that are used on a regular basis can be found quicker.

Five S   Straighten

Once you have cleaned the area out you need to ensure that the items left are kept in the right place. Tools should be located where they are needed and the utilisation of shadow boards to store them in set locations. 

Five S   Shine

Now you have got rid of the rubbish and organised your tools, you need to maintain your new found order.  The area is their work environment and they should keep it clean and tidy. This is an educational program. To provide the education a detailed and comprehensive 5S training program is needed

Five S   Standardise

Once you have made the effort to tidy, organise and clean the work area you need to ensure your efforts and new found disciplines are not let to slip. Implementing random and strict 5S audits should be used to maintain the standards.

Five S   Sustain / Ongoing improvement

You have put into place the culture and systems to sustain 5S but you also need to look at continual improvements. You must introduce the whole culture change, standards must be accepted through training and education and every one work to continued improvements as part of Lean Manufacturing.

An important part of any Five S program is to provide the complete operational staff with the required5S training. This should cover the benefits to all members of the staff and how it improves their day to day work environment.

Lean Manufacturing

The principles of Lean manufacturingand thinking, provide a method to specify and add "Value" while combating "waste", referred to as " Muda " (The Japanese word). Waste is the result of the over use of any resource required to produce a product or deliver a service. Waste is also identified as idle time where no value is being added to a product or service.