5S Meth­od­o­logy: In­creas­ing workplace pro­ductiv­ity

Far too often, bad workplace con­di­tions prohibit us from achieving the best possible results. It’s dis­or­gan­ised, equipment is not readily available, and resources are even un­ne­ces­sar­ily wasted. Many busi­nesses regard isolated clean-ups in the style of a spring cleaning as the solution. This might help in the short term – but slowly and surely the old routines will creep back in.

In the long term, a better method is required – a mindset that is taken onboard by man­age­ment and every single employee. That’s where the Japanese 5s meth­od­o­logy comes in, which in the western world is also becoming in­creas­ingly popular (often also called the 5A meth­od­o­logy). The ‘5’ refers to five in­di­vidu­al steps through which a work en­vir­on­ment can be con­tinu­ously improved. What’s special about the 5S meth­od­o­logy is that once the standard has been achieved, it is con­tinu­ously examined and improved. In the following, you’ll find out more about 5S and the back­ground of its meth­od­o­logy.

The 5S meth­od­o­logy is based on the Japanese concept of ‘Kaizen’, a Japanese living and working philo­sophy. The term is made up of the words ‘Kai’ (meaning ‘change’) and ‘zen’ (which roughly trans­lates to ‘for the better’. In other words, it’s about the pursuit of sus­tain­able change. Here, we are also talking about a con­tinu­ous im­prove­ment process (CIP for short). The term not only relates to concrete methods and guidelines, but is more of a special way of looking at living con­di­tions, the workplace, and work processes. Beyond this, it’s based on the desire to con­tinu­ously develop oneself and one’s en­vir­on­ment to improve its quality.

With Kaizen, im­prove­ments can start with small steps – for example by or­gan­ising your desk better. Generally, it’s about looking for im­prove­ments every day, to never be satisfied with new de­vel­op­ments, and to strive to con­stantly improve standards. In this way, not only do work processes become more efficient, resources are also saved, or used in a more sus­tain­able way. This kind of mentality is only possible, however, if man­age­ment is inclined to involve its employees, and if the direct su­per­visor is also ready to accept and implement sug­ges­tions for im­prove­ment.

The 5S meth­od­o­logy is one of many concepts with which the above-mentioned Kaizen approach can be realised.

The 5S meth­od­o­logy was ori­gin­ally created by the car man­u­fac­turer Toyota’s pro­duc­tion manager, Taiichi Ōno. Due to a lack of resources, Toyota had arrived at a cross­roads in the mid-20^th century, but due to the 5S meth­od­o­logy, was able to again become highly suc­cess­ful despite poor con­di­tions. Ever since, the 5S concept has garnered worldwide attention. Even if companies don’t con­sciously apply the 5S method, they still follow the goal of having an efficient work en­vir­on­ment and, without knowing it, apply a trick or two from this man­age­ment method. But what does 5S or 5A stand for?

Often the workplace is filled with way too many items which are never or very rarely used. You can easily lose oversight and things start to get messy. That’s why you need to keep things tidy and sort through your items. To do this, these questions should be asked: Which items or work materials are never used and can be entirely removed? Which items are only rarely used and can be stored away in an ap­pro­pri­ate place? Sorting out everything also lets you gain an overview of resources. This di­min­ishes the risk of work materials being reordered when they’re actually still at hand.

Or­gan­ising directly follows the sorting process. The question at the heart of this is, based on what system should work materials be organised? Everything requires its own place. What is used by whom and how often? How can the routes to these materials be cut short? The created or­gan­isa­tion­al structure should be clearly logged. Signs or other markers can help make the structure visible and com­pre­hens­ible to everyone. Photos and graphs of the desired or­gan­isa­tion will let any dis­crep­an­cies stand out.

There’s not much point or­gan­ising things if the working area isn’t tidy. Cleaning the workplace also refers to all machines and equipment that are inspected or under main­ten­ance. If excessive dirt or unusually high levels of wear are found, those re­spons­ible should analyse the reasons for this. The cleaning process is def­in­itely not the most popular part of the 5S meth­od­o­logy, but its results do lead to an improved work en­vir­on­ment. If customers regularly visit the workplace, then the new state of clean­li­ness will probably also improve customer relations.

With the term ‘stand­ard­ise’ the 5S meth­od­o­logy covers two points: For one, the acquired or­gan­isa­tion and clean­li­ness should be made standard, one that you commit to. On the other hand, it covers how this standard was reached. Markings or signs can help make the sorting of tools and materials the new normal. You can also plan how often certain machines are cleaned and main­tained. In addition, re­spons­ible in­di­vidu­als can be put in charge of in­di­vidu­al tasks or areas. Lists can be created for this so that employees can orientate them­selves.

To keep new-found standards in the long term, self-dis­cip­line is required. Any neg­li­gence must be dealt with in a timely manner. As such, regular checkups and employee com­mit­ment are required. The entire 5S cycle should be regularly repeated to achieve further im­prove­ments. Shitsuke is the fifth step, which – like a re­pet­it­ive cycle – leads back to the first step. It’s not uncommon for self-dis­cip­line to be the basic principle, which means it can also be placed at the centre of the 5S Kaizen cycle, while the other four steps move around it.

At first, it might seem like the in­di­vidu­al steps can be easily achieved, but problems can arise when put to practice. To implement the principle of a 5S lean man­age­ment model, all employees must be on the same page. However, this is not always the case, as these methods certainly require a heightened amount of effort, which can be perceived as an unwanted attack on their work en­vir­on­ment.

It’s the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the person in charge to inform everyone about 5S and Kaizen, and to clearly emphasise their benefits. These can be sum­mar­ised as follows:

• Or­gan­isa­tion and clean­li­ness improve well-being
• Resources are saved and can be used in more useful areas
• Work processes become more efficient and pro­duct­ive
• Handing over a workplace is less com­plic­ated
• The risk of workplace accidents is reduced
• Extra space is created, and with that, new pos­sib­il­it­ies

Once these points have been presented and explained, employees will be a lot more inclined to commit to the change. Man­age­ment must make clear that it’s not only the company but every in­di­vidu­al that will profit from the 5S meth­od­o­logy. To get this message across, training should be given high im­port­ance. In­ter­n­al­ising the 5S meth­od­o­logy will take time, but with a little dis­cip­line and enough re­pe­ti­tion the positive de­vel­op­ments will soon be felt. In any case, superiors should lead by example. Only in this way is long-term success possible.

The 5S meth­od­o­logy is made up of five steps:

• Sort
• Straight­en
• Shine
• Stand­ard­ise
• Self-dis­cip­line

While these prin­ciples were ori­gin­ally developed for the pro­duc­tion industry, they can be uni­ver­sally applied in every field of work. The goal is to create an organised and pro­duct­ive work en­vir­on­ment. To make this happen, superiors must set a good example, but also convince their employees of the benefits before they are im­ple­men­ted.

How strictly you choose to follow the guidelines should always be made in agreement with all staff. For man­age­ment to go at it alone is not re­com­men­ded. It will take a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of time until the in­di­vidu­al steps are safely anchored into daily working life, but the effort will be worth it. For good reason, the 5S are applied in companies worldwide after their success in Japan.