5S - Why We Need It ?

2010-10-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

Is your manufacturing area or office having problems such as mixed device, space in between machines or office stacked with unneeded items with so-called “sentimental values”, production floor crowded with parts and tools, faulty machines parts covered with oily and sticky dirt until cannot even notice the missing screw, idling and excessive WIP lying on production floor, etc. ?

Apart from posing potential work place accidents, the items mentioned above also hinder the improvement on process flow in the production floor; not to mention the negative impact on workers’ productivity and manufacturing costs.

What do you see in the photograph ? What do you think would happen if there is an urgent need to get a particular machine replacement part from this maintenance store room ? How much unnecessary downtime would occur for a technician to look for spare parts ?

What about the equipment shown above ? Any productivity improvement idea in your mind for a machine with this condition ?

These are signs that your facility may be in need of a 5S Program.

Managing the workplace effectiveness starts with ensuring a safe, clean and well-ordered working environment. This is basis for standardization, continuous improvement and ultimately, for becoming the role model work organization towards waste elimination through workplace organization.

To achieve this, workplace organization and other means are needed to keep everyone in the organization abreast of what is happening and to spot problems before they develop into major complications. Therefore, the objective of the evaluation is to ensure that the 5S implementation will lead to a total quality improvement.

Perhaps you may think that our experienced workers are already used to the environment, they can get what they want even with such working condition. But how fast can a person get what he wants ? Or how fast can a person find “the location” to replenish the parts ? Worst case, when the “experienced worker” has resigned and replaced with a new one. How long do you think the new worker would take to find what he wants in that maintenance store room ?

What about the machine with all the cutting residues on the floor ? Would there be any hidden sharp object which might endanger the workers ? Would it cause any productivity loss if the moving parts of machine jammed with the overflowing residues ? Aren’t these critical?

Without 5S, simply taking good care of our machines and equipment does not entirely eliminate the chance of them breaking down. When that happens, the fire drill begins.

Go to any maintenance department of any company in the country and you shall find many things in common, like a storage area for supplies and parts. Since this is an area typically viewed as a non-production area, we tend to ignore it.

With a 5S approach, we can improve all areas of our company, from office area to production floor. With a proper implementation of good 5S program, we can develop standard procedures which can improve not only the productivity of the workers but also the moral of the entire workforce.

Without a standard 5S procedure for our work place, we may find ourselves in a situation like those in this video clip.

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5S For Better Productivity

5S - Why We Need It ?