What is 5S? A process that drives productivity through the organizing and managing of our Tools/Materials storage locations.
Why DO 5S? It provides quick payback that is easily visible for all; productivity, safety, and financial savings. After 5S has been applied to a storage location, the following benefits are achieved:
1) Tools/Material are easier to find, reducing the time spent looking for tools/material (productivity)
2) We have better visibility of our tools/material, reducing the risk of running out of needed
tools/materials (productivity)
3) We find tools/material that we didn't realize that we had, thus we need to order less tools/material
(financial savings)
4) It reduces the clutter in the storage area, making the storage area safer to walk around (safety)
How does 5S work? The 5S stands for the five steps you follow to get through the 5S process; all five steps start with the letter "S". The five steps are Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. In the following example, "bucket" is used as analogy for storage areas, tool cribs, back of utility trucks, etc.
In the Sort Step, we empty the bucket and sort all the tools/material while they are outside of the bucket.
In the Straighten Step, we organize all the tools/material by type & size, and determine which ones we need to keep in the bucket.
In the Shine Step, we clean up the storage area and the tools/material. For example, if a tool needs to be sharpened, we sharpen it.
In the Standardize Step, we determine which tool/material GOES WHERE in the storage location, we put labels on storage racks to inform people what goes where, and we add other visual controls as needed.
In the Sustain Step, we first go by the rule "put everything back in its place, when you are not using it". Then we perform periodical audits to ensure that we are still keeping tools/material in the location where we agreed that they go in.
