It’s a Dirty Business

Cleanliness is a dirty business. It is undervalued and underestimated by most businesses. No matter what industry you operate in, cleanliness is a crucial point of measure for customers and employees alike. More and more, customers are becoming focused on the smallest detail of your operation. Cleanliness is the king of first impressions! From gum on the sidewalks and entrances, to dust on framing, dirty floors and unkept or unsanitary restrooms, customers see all and judge you accordingly. For manufacturing or other operations that have no physical customer presence, you are not off the hook. Your employees are customers and they are critical of cleanliness in the businesses they frequent. Those same employees bring that critical eye into your business and evaluate it with the same intensity. If your manufacturing facility is dirty, you are sending a strong message to your employees that you don’t care about their comfort, health and welfare. Unfortunately, cleaning services are one of the first areas looked at when cost savings must be achieved in an organization. Each time there are cutbacks, the cleanliness of your facility declines. It’s a never ending downward spiral that can eventually become very costly when you try to recover.

Cleanliness Sparkles and Shines

Business operations must have a through and effective cleaning program that gets results on a daily basis. Your facility gets dirty on a daily basis and your program must be effective to maintain standards. Thats where Lean principles and the 5S’s need to been practiced across all aspects of your business, not just the manufacturing floor or in customer interactions and service delivery. Within the 5S Principles (Sorting, Set-In-Order, Shining, Standardization, and Sustaining), cleaning is well represented. Sorting eliminates clutter. Set-In-Order creates organization. Shining cleans and polishes. Standardization and Sustaining allows employers to maintain the Lean environment. From the outermost perimeter of your property to the inner sanctums of the facility, the 5S principle must be exercised diligently with cleanliness. You can never underestimated the power of ” shine and sparkle” when it comes to your facility. Cleanliness pays off in all aspects of your operations. It has a direct impact in Customer Satisfaction and Employee Satisfaction.

Maintaining the Highest Standards

Achieving and maintaining the highest possible cleanliness standards is really one of the easiest things a business can do on a daily basis. It is not hard to judge or evaluate. When you look at any part of your plant or facility, you can ask one simple question, “Is It Clean or Dirty?” You don’t have to possess multiple degrees or special training to answer the question. It’s black or white (no pun intended). If it’s clean, then you are on track. It it’s dirty, you have some work to do. Don’t fool yourself, it is just that simple. By practicing the proper 5S principles with cleanliness with the same attention and focus as the rest of your operation, you will be on track.

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What Is Really Going On?

Do you have an effective 5S program or a great housekeeping model? You maybe just going through the motions. For some, a lack of understanding of what a 5S program should be relegates the process to a very effective housekeeping program for the organization with embracing the results of quality improvement. The elements of the 5S program (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain) are often mistaken for effective housekeeping. On the surface, those elements are cleaning processes. What are the reasons for each element of 5S? They take you from cleanliness to an in-depth exploration of understanding and quality improvement.

Applying the Elements of a 5S Program

A good 5S program produces good housekeeping, but it is just an outcome, not the goal. With that said, 5S should be a problem prevention program and a way to identify and fix problems when they are still very small, thus preventing big problems. When we observe something out of place with 5S, the process should be repeated until we find the root cause and take action. With that in mind, you must use the 5Y (why, why, why, why, why) until you have determined the root source of the problem. Often enough, asking 5 times is not enough, and the more you ask why, the deeper you dive into a problem. It is crucial to understand the intent of the 5S program and couple that with the 5Y to ensure that your results are quality focused. There have been examples on manufacturing floors where their zeal to achieve the 5S’s has resulted in a state of hyper cleanliness. That is all well and good, but they are ignoring the 5Y’s. Leaking fluid, shavings on the floor or loose parts are clear indications of problems. If your focus is one lean, those issues will get quickly resolved without a clear understanding on why they happened.

Taking Control of Quality

The key to success is to ensure that your commitment is to quality, not cleanliness. Focus on the elements of 5S will start the process and it will be effectively expanding when coupled with the 5Y. When you see a loose part or fluid pool on the floor, don’t just pick it up or clean it up. Your 5S has led you to the problem, now expand the 5Y until you clearly can grasp why those situations exist and how they will reconcile. Be tenacious! Everyone in the organization must understand the purpose of 5S and why it must be embraced for what it is. Housekeeping and cleanliness are valuable, but don’t get carried away down the wrong path.

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It is said that performance is related to housekeeping and workplace organization. It is a first step to improving operating results. The 5S Tool is a common sense approach to improve the visual control in the workplace. The decision-making process usually comes from a dialogue about standardization, which builds understanding among employees of how they should do the work. It can apply to both manufacturing and the service setting.

The term 5S is an abbreviated reference to five Japanese words that control workplace organization and housekeeping. Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke make up the 5S Tool. Taking it a bit further, we would define them into the following 5 words:

Housekeeping Dispose of or remove the unnecessary items from the shop floor. The unnecessary collect dirt, get damaged, get lost or create unsafe situations.

Organization Needed items must have a quick and accessible place at the work station. All items should have a standardized place. There is a place for everything and everything in its place.

Clean Up Process discipline is reinforced by cleanliness. It shows respect for the workers by management and enforces a defined process.

Cleanliness Continuous cleaning means you are always ready. If cleaning is continuous by all, there is never a dispute on who is responsible. Create a clear responsibility and leave no place untouched.

Discipline Rules must be clearly communicated and strict accountability must be held. Quality will be improved with proper discipline in cleanliness.

Decreasing distractions in the workplace is the best description for the 5S Tool. The tool positively affects and influences every part of the process and worker performance. It is understood with 5S, you will never see a plant that runs well being dirty and disorganized. Likewise, you will never see a dirty and disorganized plant run well.

The 5S system is a great place to start for all improvement efforts across a business platform. The 5S Tool is especially attractive to older manufacturing facilities who are seeking to make significant improvements in quality.

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There are some arguments not to begin a Lean Transformation with 5S. I agree with this. But, this article is not about the broader Lean Tranformation, but about the method itself.

5S is part of the Toyota Production System, anglicized in the US as Lean. 5S is a reference for standardized cleanup, order, or tidyness. Defined,

• Sort (Seiri): This refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.
• Straighten (Seiton): Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. Tools, equipment, and materials must be systematically arranged for the easiest and most efficient access. There must be a place for everything, and everything must be in its place.
• Shine (Seiso): Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place.
• Standardize (Seiketsu): Allows for control and consistency. Basic housekeeping standards apply everywhere in the facility. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are. House keeping duties are part of regular work routines.
• Sustain (Shitsuke): Refers to maintaining standards and keeping the facility in safe and efficient order day after day, year after year.

The 5S supports other Lean ideas such as the Visual Workplace, SMED (Single-Minute-Exchange-of-Dies), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), and to some small measure Just-in-Time (JIT). 5S is also a foundation for Safety in the workplace.

I’ve seen companies try 5S and fail. The Toyota Production System, besides all the jargon and pragmatic concepts is, at bottom, a culture. 5S is part of the Toyota culture. When I’ve seen 5S fail, it was because it was part of a mandated program, not a self-organizing, organice one, that is supported and pushed by the workers.

Here’s an example: At Toyota, Hebron, Kentucky, at the end of the shift it was expected as part of the culture to clean your work area. But, there was a short time where some workers were systematically *not* performing 5S after their shift. Why?

A self-organized team quickly got together, and conducted a root cause analysis, and followed the Plan-Do-Check-Act pattern. They brainstormed and used an Ishikawa Diagram to help them arrive at the root causes for why 5S wasn’t being performed at the end of shift. This Kaizen activity was done in just a few hours, and the output of which were root causes and a detailed plan to eliminate them with a deadline and people responsible for making it happen.

Once ingrained in the culture, concepts such as 5S, JIT, SMED, NVA, etc, are just part of work. Doing them and participating in them is part of the collective consciousness of the workplace.

5S is an important concept; a foundation for safety and exposes the time-traps and non-value-added activities that might be present in your process or workplace. But, to fully benefit from 5S, it’s important to try to make it part of the culture; part of the collective consciousness of the workplace.

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Sorting

The first principle of Lean 5S that can be applied to the retail industry is Seiri, or Sort as it translates to in English. The retail application of this principle to both merchandise and fixtures, and involves sorting out items and tools that are useful from the tools that are not. In this way, a company can eliminate the useless items and keep their storages and work areas clean. The useless or not essential tools can be kept temporarily in other rooms until they need to be used.

Straighten

The second principle involves the creation of a storage area where needed items can stay. Retails should determine the perfect location for each tool so that it can be reached easily when it is required. Retails can tag or paint each tool and put them near others that do similar jobs or processes.

Cleaning

Cleaning is an important aspect of maintaining a retail store. It is an activity that forms the first impression to customers and clean places attract more customers. Systematic cleaning also means taking good care of the tools and equipment that are used. Cleaning should be done every day and to make the place shine the tools or equipment that are not working should be immediately repaired or replaced so that nothing remains obsolete.

Standardize

Standardizing means analyzing the processes and activities at the business to identify which work properly and increase productivity. This can help retails remove the processes and practices that no longer suit them and do not enhance the services provided. Retails can involve in this process all the participants at the firm as everyone can contribute toward creating better standard practices. Also, by collaborating with people that actually perform these tasks, firms can pinpoint easier what is working and what is not. One strategy that can be implemented to identify the working tasks is to make daily checklists to see if the requirements are being met.

Sustain

The final principle of Lean 5S involves checking if the other processes work properly, and repairing or replacing them if not. Lean 5S can help retails improve their business and productivity which results in increased revenues and more customers.

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Despite all the negativity surrounding stress, it can actually be good for you. It can motivate you to succeed, build resilience, boost immunity in the short term and even make life more meaningful. However, it needs to be managed. 

Unmanaged stress can contribute to many health conditions, including hypertension, insomnia, depression and anxiety. It can also degrade your personal relationships and make you less productive at work, leading to more stress.

While there are many ways to alleviate stress, not many people know that Six Sigma can help. Here’s how.

Increases Your Efficiency

When you have too much to do in a day, you can barely find time to destress. Being efficient means completing tasks on time and with the least amount of effort. Six Sigma has a tool called DMAIC that can optimize processes in your daily life by eliminating efficiencies.

DMAIC is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. From cleaning the house to bathing the kids and taking them to school to doing your shopping, you can apply DMAIC to these processes and optimize them. In the end, you have less to stress about. 

In a nutshell, with the DMAIC, you can identify unnecessary steps in each process and eliminate them. The beauty is that once you improve one process, you can follow the same steps to optimize others.

Organizing Your Space

Clutter leads to stress because it can be tough to relax when your living space is in a messy state. Every time you sit down, you’re reminded that you have so much to do. The low-grade stress this creates can gradually drain your energy, making you less productive in other areas of life.

When it comes to organizing spaces, whether at work or home, Six Sigma has 5S, which stands for Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, Sustain. Suppose you wanted to make your home a more organized space for relaxation. Here’s how 5S would help:

• Sort: Go through all your belongings, including furniture, appliances, electronics, clothes and other equipment. Find out what needs to remain and what needs to go.
• Set: Find a logical arrangement for the remaining items. For example, you can arrange them by type, how often they are used and where they can be stored to reduce unnecessary motion.
• Shine: This step is about putting everything in its place and then cleaning the house.
• Standardize: With everything in its place and the house in a clean state, keeping things this way needs to become a habit. For example, you can create cleaning schedules and a list of tasks, along with instructions
• Sustain: Sustain is maintaining order. The idea is to involve everyone by communicating that 5S is long-term and motivating them to get involved and keep it going.

Conclusion

Making you more efficient by streamlining your life processes and organizing your living space are just some of the ways Six Sigma can help you manage daily stress. As you can see, the methodology isn’t just for the workplace, but everywhere there is a process, including your everyday life.

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To ensure that team members are productive – putting their time and resources to good use – during a Kaizen event, they need the right tools. However, doing this is no easy task since Six Sigma has many tools. But this is important, considering that pulling it off will lead to the success of the Kaizen event and significantly increase workplace productivity and business performance.

Here are four tools that are essential to pulling off a Kaizen.

1. 5S

During a Kaizen event, there will be questions regarding quality management that need to be answered. 5S is usually used to answer many of them. This tool has helped many organizations achieve total quality management, on top of helping them reduce costs, increase safety, standardize procedures and deliver products and services on time.

There are five major components or Ss to 5S: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.

2. Value Stream Mapping

To study how the value of a product flows through a process, teams use value stream mapping (VSM). This helps the team visualize and analyze how things like information and materials contribute to the smooth delivery of value to the customer or end-user. This allows them to better identify which activities in a process add value and which ones don’t. Any activities that don’t add value are removed from the process, which significantly reduces or eliminates any waste.

3. Fishbone Diagram

If you know what 5 Whys is, you’d know that this tool leaves a lot to be desired visually. Think of the fishbone diagram as a way to visualize 5 Whys. Kaizen emphasizes that to effectively get rid of problems in the workplace, root cause analysis must be performed. 

In this diagram, the problem is represented by the fish’s head. Each bone leading to the tail is a homogenous group of potential causes or “Why?” questions. These bones can also have sub-bones or subgroups that lead to further potential causes. 

The aim of the fishbone diagram is to see if there are some less obvious causes that are leading to the issues being experienced. It is believed that once these are eliminated, the problem will disappear indefinitely. That way, resources aren’t wasted on the wrong causes.

4. Pareto Analysis

Pareto Analysis is one of the most effective tools for identifying and solving problems. It is not uncommon for teams to use it during a Kaizen event. This technique, which is also known as the 80/20 rule, seeks to prioritize problems in terms of severity. The problems are usually arranged in order of severity through the use of a Pareto chart. By simply looking at the chart, teams know which problems they need to tackle first.

Conclusion

Of course, there are other tools that are essential to add to everyone’s Kaizen toolbelt, including Kaizen newspapers, SIPOC and Target Process Report. However, now you have a good idea of what tools can contribute to a successful Kaizen event. Making sure a Kaizen goes well is one of the best ways to increase productivity in the entire organization.

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Lately, Six Sigma and Lean have become key buzzwords for progressive organizations that seek to improve their efficiency. Six Sigma denotes a methodology used in business management that makes use of a scientific approach to measure quality while reducing defects and variations. On its part, Lean is a combination of philosophies, tools and methodologies that make up a management system to scientifically solve business problems.

These two methodologies are often used hand in hand by many organizations within a variety of industries which combine mindsets and methods adopted from each approach. There also exist a number of frameworks for the two approaches. Most of these tools can be used to great effect by organizations of all kinds, even those that have not fully embraced the twin methodologies.

5S

This is an organizational paradigm for the workplace and has been developed to help companies improve safety, streamline workflow and reduce waste in their processes. This approach is an abbreviation for its five main principles: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.

5 Whys

Among the essential tenets behind lean thinking is that the root causes of any problems that arise need to be addressed, not worked around or covered up. These underlying causes of issues at the workplace can often be uncovered if the simple question, Why? is asked five times. Each answer is documented and the process repeated until the root cause of the problem has been identified and resolved.

A3 Reports

Named after the paper size commonly used at the offices of Toyota, A3 reports are single-page documents which summarize all that is needed to make decisions and report on a particular process. They condense a lot of information from multiple sources into a single, easily-digestible document that can then be acted upon. Typically, they include current process flows, goals, analysis and recommendations for implementation.

Control Charts

Control charts make it easier for business leaders to visualize process output over a set period of time. Because control charts predate Six Sigma and Lean, they can be associated with either of the two methods. They are used to help management establish common cause variation (indicating that there is no change in the process) as well as special cause variation (a key indicator of shifts in a system or problems within a process).

DMAIC

DMAIC is an abbreviation for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Many people consider DMAIC to be the most important tool in the Six Sigma methodology. This is an improvement cycle that helps organizations to improve, optimize and stabilize their processes, and is regarded as the Six Sigma roadmap for resolution of business problems.

Kanban

The word Kanban literally means shopkeeper’s sign in Japanese. This visualization methodology helps to facilitate just-in-time manufacturing as well as a streamlined workflow in a range of industries. The key idea behind Kanban is the use of visual cues in order to guide delivery of inputs to processes when needed. It minimizes the required stock levels of raw materials, work in progress, components and finished goods.

Standard Work

If predictable and consistent results are to be achieved by a business, it is vital that every process is carried out in the same way every time, no matter who is carrying out the tasks associated to the process. One way to achieve this is by developing, documenting and enforcing standard work. Standard work is a representation of the organization’s current best practices for performance of different parts of its processes.

Value Stream Mapping

This is a lean tool which is designed to ensure that each part of a business process offers tangible value to the customer. In this case, value can be defined as something which a customer would be willing to pay for. When carrying out a value stream mapping, the current processes are examined and documented. Any step, task or expenditure on resources that does not produce value is eliminated or improved.

Conclusion

Each of the Six Sigma and Lean tools outlined above can be used independently or in conjunction with another to help a business achieve quantifiable goals. Most businesses that adopt the use of these tools enjoy measurable results with regard to quality improvement, staff engagement, cost savings and customer satisfaction.

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The Tools and Methodologies Used by Both TPS and Lean

5S: This is a system to organize the workplace and then maintain it. This system originated from the Toyota Production System.

• Sort (Seiri): Only keep what is needed and discard the rest.
• Straighten (Seiton): Make sure everything needed for work as its own place.
• Shine (Seiso): Make sure everything is clean free of dirt, dust and contaminates so that problems can be easily noted and taken care of.
• Standardize (Seiketsu): Create a process of standards; make things visible so that it is easy to identify what are normal conditions and what isn’t.
• Sustain (Shitsuke) implement protocols for maintaining established desired standards.

Kaizen: This Japanese philosophy focuses on the mindset of continuous small improvements over the long haul.

Kanban: A method (could be a board) for managing the actual process of a product or service.

P.D.C.A: Plan-Do-Check-Act  — this is used for implementing improvements

• Plan: Create the plan and expected results
• Do: Carry out the plan
• Check: Confirm the results you achieved
• Act: Review estimated expected results and repeat again

Poke-Yoke: Mistake proofing, when you design the product with the mindset of avoiding specific errors in the actual design.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Conducting RCA will ensure that the issue won’t happen again. One great tool for RCA is the 5 Whys.

5 Whys: Keep asking why to the previous answer until a satisfactory answer is achieved.

As you can see, the same tried and true methods still work today. The tools or methods need not be complicated to achieve great results. Want to learn more about these Six Sigma tools and methodologies? For more information on our Six Sigma training courses or services, please visit 6sigma.com.

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Are you looking to implement 5S in your current workplace? The methodology can be very powerful and can result in huge improvements in productivity in most working environments, but it’s important that it’s applied correctly and with attention to all details. There are multiple components that have to be observed carefully, and you’ll need to make sure that the whole organization is on the same page with regards to implementing 5S.

Preparing the Environment

A successful 5S implementation relies on having a productive working environment that lends itself to the use of the system, and this environment must be maintained over time as well. Prepare appropriate areas for storage of tools and materials, for example keeping the workplace organized is one of the fundamental parts of 5S, but it can be pretty much impossible to do when the working conditions don’t predispose to that.

You should also have a well-designed ordering system for all of those resources, and copies of the relevant instructions should be spread around the work floor, making them easily accessible to anyone that needs them. In addition to that, tools and materials for keeping the workplace clean should be available to everyone.

Standardizing on All Levels

Another major point of 5S is standardization yet some organizations don’t seem to think about this in the right terms, and only apply it to certain levels of the company. Instead, standardization should be a global effort that encompasses all activities of the organization and allows everyone to work towards a common goal more easily. It can be a messy ordeal at first if you’ve been working for a long time without any standard practices in place, but the longer the company runs with a proper standard model, the more the benefits are going to compound.

It’s also important to ensure that new employees will have the right mindset for an organization that follows standard principles so much. This is a common problem for larger companies that go through a 5S transition it’s not enough to get everyone involved in the current organization, you also have to ensure that things are laid out in a way that drives new employees in that direction as well. And that is often much more difficult to do right than many leaders suspect.

Maintaining the Status Quo in the Long Run

Last but not least, you’ll need to make sure that your efforts won’t go to waste a few years from now when it all falls apart and people return to their old ways because that’s just easier. Sustainability is actually an important part of 5S, and while some leaders see it as a critical factor for the production work, it actually plays a major role in the implementation of 5S itself. You have to do the transformation in a way that the results will last, and this depends on the specific structure of your company at the moment.

A lot has been said about sustainable 5S implementations in recent times and it’s a bit out of the scope of this article to discuss them, but a good rule of thumb is to have some practices in place that verifies everyone’s alignment and involvement with 5S on a regular basis. Then, correct any irregularities that come up in those verifications.

Conclusion

Implementing 5S in your company can be one of the best improvements to its productivity as a whole, but it’s a process that has to be controlled carefully. Every step of the 5S methodology has to be examined thoroughly, and you must make long-term decisions that drive sustainable implementation and motivates everyone to stay on board with the changes you’ve made.

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The 5S methodology enjoys a lot of popularity nowadays and is commonly mentioned in various contexts related to production and manufacturing. Its origins are somewhat difficult to trace, as multiple people and organizations have contributed to the ideology over time. And in the end, some companies tend to face certain difficulties when trying to implement 5S into their own workflow. Understanding what 5S is really about, and putting it to proper use, takes some time and research but once you’ve covered the groundwork, you’ll find that the methodology can work wonders for improving the productivity in your organization.

The 5S

The name of 5S comes from five S-words their original Japanese names started with S when transliterated, and modern English translations have followed that style as well.

• Sort (Seiri) this refers to ensuring that the workplace is properly structured and everything is exactly where it should be. This doesn’t only refer to the tools and materials you use in your work, but for the opposite too anything that doesn’t belong on the work floor should be regularly removed and stored away appropriately. Waste disposal also falls in this category.
• Set in order (Seiton) similar to the first point, but not quite the same, this one is concerned with ensuring that everything needed for the regular workflow is easily accessible and is always in a regular place. Reducing the time needed to seek out specific materials and tools can work wonders on ensuring that your employees don’t need to waste any unnecessary time in their tasks.
• Shine (Seiso) putting sufficient emphasis on the cleanliness and hygiene of the workplace is just as important as keeping things in order, but this aspect of workplace maintenance tends to get ignored by certain companies nowadays. It’s worth pointing out that the importance of workplace cleanliness will have different degrees of importance from one business to another, but maintaining some baseline standard is always crucial.
• Standardize (Seiketsu) when your company works in a standardized manner, your employees will spend far less time in unnecessary communication. Companies that don’t follow this principle tend to generate a lot of waste in constant repetition of the same questions, and the problems get even worse as the size of the organization grows. A large company that doesn’t follow standardized principles can quickly find itself in a situation where different departments aren’t aligned on their input/output relationships.
• Sustain (Shitsuke) building companies in a sustainable manner is becoming more and more prominent in organizational discussions these days, and for a good reason. We’ve only recently started to realize the huge amounts of waste that are generated by companies that don’t maintain a proper outlook for the future, and it’s not rare to see companies operating in a way that suits their current situation, but ultimately leads to their destruction. Or worse, they end up harming the environment around them.

How Do These Ideas Translate to Increased Productivity?

Looking at each separate point of 5S alone can make it somewhat difficult to figure out how each of them will work towards realizing great improvements in the productivity of your company. Sure, the basic benefit of each point is obvious, but what most leaders miss when considering the potential implications of 5S is how it all comes together when the entire system is applied correctly.

The point of 5S are grouped together for a reason. Each of them adds a piece to the puzzle, but alone they won’t come anywhere close to the potential that can be realized with the methodology. And this is the exact point of failure for many company leaders which you must strive to avoid if you’re going to implement 5S in your organization, you have to make sure that the methodology is followed down to the last point, and maintain that status quo for a good while until the situation in your company has stabilized.

Conclusion

5S can do a lot for a modern organization, and the benefits of the methodology are huge. However, it’s crucial that the separate principles are applied together in a sensible manner, and that the organization pays sufficient attention to each separate point during the implementation of the project. Otherwise, implementing each point on its own will bring you diminishing returns and will most likely even discourage you from moving forward with the project.

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5S is a versatile system commonly applied in various production environments in order to boost the productivity of the facility as a whole, and ensure that everyone is working together towards continuous improvement. It relies on a set of five principles Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain and every good leader should have at least some rudimentary familiarity with the system and know how to apply it to their own company’s work.

Using 5S on a More Individual Level

However, something that’s often missed by many leaders is the fact that 5S can have a huge potential when applied on a more personal level the system can work wonders in helping you organize your own tasks and projects in various ways. You can even use it to handle specific subtasks, such as the dreaded organizing of one’s emails.

It’s a common problem for many leaders, especially in larger companies you get so much mail on a regular basis that it becomes impossible to keep up with it and still do your regular job. At some point, you have to draw a line and decide which messages are truly important, which ones can wait, and which can be tossed straight in the trash. And as it turns out, 5S can be very useful in helping you sort out this huge mess.

How Does 5S Work with Emails?

Pretty much every aspect of 5S can be applied to the organizing of your emails if you abstract things enough. Sorting is the most obvious one make sure that you deal with irrelevant emails quickly and put them out of sight. You can also take this one step further and prepare folders for each type of email that you receive, and organize them there.

Setting your emails in order is a bit trickier, and it mostly depends on the email client you’re using. The important point is that you should have immediate, convenient access to every aspect of your email that you need. If you frequently need to send invoices, for example, you should prioritize that template above others.

Shining your email is basically dealing with junk as soon as it arrives, and also ensuring that you don’t leave anything unanswered for too long. Unanswered emails can pile up quite quickly, creating a lot of waste in your work when you have to drop what you’re doing and focus on them exclusively at some point, so it’s better to remove them from the process as quickly as possible.

Standardizing is where things get interesting. Most modern email clients have powerful functionality for sending pre-made templates, sorting your emails according to complex rules and filters, and much more. It’s up to you how you’re going to use these systems, but the important thing is that the final result is something that allows you to easily send and receive messages of certain types without having to think about the process too much.

Last but not least, it’s important to do all of this in a sustainable manner. It’s no good setting up complex filters if you end up ignoring them for your future emails because it’s too annoying for you to deal with the extra rules. Likewise, if you prepare templates but don’t use them, this is a waste of time and effort.

Conclusion

This might sound like it’s going overboard a bit, but any experienced manager will tell you that there’s no such thing as putting too much thought into the organization of your emails. As long as the final result is that you get to spend less time dealing with emails, and more time on your actual project-related tasks, your whole company is going to be more productive.

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Total Productive Maintenance and 5S are two methodologies that seem somewhat distant, but the reality is that applying them effectively at the same time can lead to a great synergetic effect that boosts the performance of your company even more. In the end, they both strive to achieve the same goal in different way, with 5S being a more detailed implementation that covers more basis. From some points of view, TPM can be viewed as a subset of 5S, although that’s not really a correct way to view the situation as there are some intricate differences.

Prolonging the Lifetime of Your Assets

The core of TPM is about ensuring that your physical assets like tools and machines can last a long time through clever application of preventive maintenance. But you shouldn’t just focus on the tools themselves it’s also important to consider the environment in which they’re used, as well as the procedures applied in their use.

5S pays a lot of attention to proper organization and maintenance of the workplace itself, not just the tools that are used in the everyday work. Keeping your material base in a good condition isn’t just about maintaining the tools themselves. For example, if your workers have to constantly spend a lot of time looking for the right tool for the job due to a poorly organized storage, this can end up costing you a lot when some of those tools end up forgotten and ultimately ignored in their regular maintenance.

Keeping Things Simple and Streamlined for Your Workers

When all tools are operating correctly and the workplace is maintained in a good condition, everyone will find their job easier to perform and far less time will end up wasted in unnecessary communication. This is a common source of waste for many organizations, especially ones going through a period of quick expansion where many new workers are taken on board. You’ll want to be careful and plan for those situations accordingly, and proper ongoing maintenance is a great way to ensure that you won’t find yourself in a tough situation after a period of success.

5S also puts a lot of emphasis on standardization, which can further help improve the current state of your operations and make things easier for new employees. A commonly applied idea in 5S, for example, is to color-code items according to the way they’re used. You can combine this with TPM and apply different colors to items that are in need of specific types of maintenance. You can even match the colors with the condition grades recognized by TPM and easily combine the two methodologies.

Standardizing Maintenance Procedures

Why not take this one step further? You can standardize the very way things are being maintained in good condition, giving your workers the opportunity to perform maintenance themselves without having to wait for someone to tell them. Enabling this kind of proactive maintenance from your workers themselves can be a very powerful tool, one that can have a long-lasting positive impact on the company as a whole.

For example, a worker capable of repairing a specific tool shouldn’t have to wait for his supervisor to confirm the repair, as long as he can be held accountable for any problems that might occur later on. This can speed things up in situations where equipment issues arise, and it can also help bring everyone up to speed with how those maintenance procedures are to be performed. Of course, you should still have a set of dedicated specialists taking care of the most important repair procedures, but it definitely can’t hurt if you get everyone on board in some capacity.

Conclusion

Combining two methodologies with so much power behind them like Total Productive Maintenance and 5S can lead to some amazing results, especially in an organization that suffers a lot from waste in equipment condition. Of course, you should approach this in a careful and educated way instead of just blindly rushing to glue the two together, but as long as you’re already somewhat experienced with lean practices and the appropriate way of thinking that they require, you shouldn’t face any difficult issues.

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Thinking One Step Ahead with SMED

Proper optimization is not just about making the facility run well with the current parameters in mind, but also to allow it to run as efficiently as possible in the future, considering upcoming developments. You have to always be one step ahead of the current environment and make informed strategical decisions.

SMED stands for Single-Minute Exchange of Die, and it refers to a methodology for improving the processing rate of a manufacturing plant. It achieves that by streamlining the process of switching from one product to the next one in line, and ensuring that all of your machines keep running at optimal efficiency at all times. It can also be used in an office setting, such as switching from task to task.

From a lean perspective, we want to complete tasks one at a time. When we batch our work, it’s often a result of the time required to changeover from product to product, or task to task. SMED can help us reduce the changeover time, to make it more efficient to operate in smaller batches.

SMED is also referred to as changeover reduction.

Going in depth

There are many intricate details to SMED.  It’s a more general term referring to the process of changing targets within your work. The name of the methodology also comes from the fact that Toyota, in the past, identified larger dies as the most problematic objects in their manufacturing chain. Dies in an office setting could be a software program that takes time to load.

Changeover times are often responsible for the biggest slowdowns in productivity, and that streamlining the process of switching work could have dramatic effects on the overall output of the business.

It’s also important to note that single-minute refers to the idea that those “exchanges” should occur in a single-digit minute (0-9 minutes), not necessarily in sixty seconds. Anything up to about ten minutes is okay in the eyes of SMED, although of course the specific time is going to vary from one company to another.

SMED and continuous improvement

SMED goes hand in hand with continuous improvement, as it can allow you to always seek to maximize the potential capacity of the organization. It’s a technique that can be applied regardless of the specific current situation, making it highly flexible and suitable for incremental upgrades. What’s more, SMED can ensure that an organization running with more advanced modern technology is always utilizing that technology to its full potential, looking for opportunities to improve its output.

What exactly should you do to implement SMED though? There are several main components to the methodology, and the exact way of using it is going to vary across the board. The general idea is to ensure that there is a clear separation of internal and external setup, so that the state of the machines or computer systems can be reset as quickly as possible.

• Internal Setup – Time spent in changeover when the machine or system is idle
• External Setup – Time spent in changeover when the machine is working on something else

For example, when you look at the time to changeover your work, how much could be done while you’re finishing up the last job or project? Could someone else be getting the next item ready to go? Getting these tasks started earlier is an example of moving from internal to external setup.

In addition, the creator of SMED states that it’s important to focus on standardizing the functionality of the company’s machines and systems, not the specific output they’re producing. In a manufacturing setting, clamps should be functional, or alternatively fasteners should be removed completely if that’s not possible. This reduces the actual time to complete the task.

Introducing some additional intermediate steps in the process can also have a positive effect on the overall performance. Sometimes the lack of buffer zones can be a major contributing factor to performance issues, and 5S is a great method to ensure that those problems don’t go unnoticed.

Last but not least, there is also a strong suggestion that the company should look into automating as much as possible from its current range of tasks. This is an obvious one in many industries, especially auto manufacturing where SMED is rooted. Priority should be placed on the internal setup tasks that slow down the overall changeover time.

Conclusion

SMED can be a great way to always have a good edge in your company. It’s a flexible technique that can be highly useful to a variety of different organizations, and it’s also aligned with the current trends in technology and the direction we’re moving towards for the future. There are some clearly valuable lessons to be learned from SMED, and every leader should make it a point to familiarize themselves with the principles behind it as early as they can in their career.

Learn more about SMED >>>

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