5S Lean Manufacturing

Most Lean initiatives start out with a 5S program to get things cleaned up and organized as one of the first steps toward Kaizen process improvement.

5S Housekeeping - to organize the workplace
Sort (Seiri)	Start by sorting the useful from the unnecessary. The only things that should remain in a work area are the parts, tools, & instructions needed to do the job.
Straighten (Seiton)	Everything has a place; everything is in its place. This is also a good time for your team to create a Visual Scoreboard, Jidoka lights, floor paint, kanbans, and other visual controls described in our our free Lean & Kaizen PowerPoint presentation.
Sweep & Shine (Seiso)	Do an initial spring cleaning. Maybe painting, scouring, sweeping, washing, rinsing, scrubbing, and whatever else is needed to make your work place shine.
Standardize (Seiketsu)	In the Standardize phase of Lean 5 S, routine cleaning becomes a way of life. Preventative maintenance is routinely performed, perhaps with planning and scheduling and some responsibilities done by your central maintenance department, and as much routine maintenance as possible performed by the people that know that work center better than anyone else.
Sustain (Shitsuke)	Shitsuke is when five S becomes a routine way of life. Root causes are routinely identified and dealt with. The Systems2win Excel templates known as the 5S Worksheet and the Standard Work Audit are very familiar to everyone - both supervisors and the workers that have come to appreciate the benefits of Five S and Lean methods.
Safety	Some companies have taken to calling their program a 6S program - with the inclusion of Safety issues. The Systems2win 5S Scorecard template does include a section for safety.

One important purpose and benefit of 5 or 6S is to make your work area clean and in order to unhide potential problems. In an unclean workplace, it is hard to even notice things like "When did that machine start making that noise?" or "When did that start leaking oil?"

Another purpose and benefit to reduce the amount of time wasted looking for misplaced tools, and materials, and supplies.

Five or Six S housekeeping is a starting point for every successful Lean process improvement initiative.

Most Lean initiatives start out with 5S training as one of the earliest initiatives, and there is a flurry of enthusiastic cleaning and organizing. The real test, however, is how well the new ways "stick" over time. The success of your 5s program is often an excellent predictor of the probable success of your greater lean manufacturing initiative.

5S Scorecard for Lean Manufacturing
5S Housekeeping Scorecard Purpose: To measure and improve 5s workplace organization, instill 5s philosophy, and evaluate success of your 5s program implementation This 5S Scorecard comes free with the purchase of any bundle of Systems2win templates	5S Scorecard

5S Scorecard for Lean Manufacturing

5S Housekeeping Scorecard

Purpose: To measure and improve 5s workplace organization, instill 5s philosophy, and evaluate success of your 5s program implementation

This 5S Scorecard comes free with the purchase of any bundle of Systems2win templates

5S Housekeeping Scorecard for Lean and Kaizen

5S Scorecard

The 5S Housekeeping Scorecard template is a very useful tool for supervisors to use on a consistent time cycle (perhaps weekly) to formally inspect and review the work areas they supervise.

The 5S Scorecard is especially useful when it is personalized for each work area.

The really successful Lean companies, however, know that when top management stops paying attention - everyone else soon follows. So, (perhaps using the Quality Data Scorecard template as a starting point), they develop a simple scorecard for top management to "supervise the supervisors" - keeping track of such things as:

How consistently each supervisor is performing 5S evaluations
How consistently each supervisor is performing Standard Work Audits
Which supervisors are actually finding and resolving problems vs. "going through the motions"

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