Making the choice to implement a 5S program is making the choice to better your business as a whole. There are all kinds of benefits that a company can enjoy by entering into the world of 5S—a few of them being quality output of product, efficiency, and safety improvements. Using 5S not only increases your overall profit, but it also changes the safety culture for the better and makes employees happier.
Your plan for implementing 5S may be there but sometimes it’s hard to find the useful materials that 5S relies on for organization. This 5S guide, introduced by this new video put out by Creative Safety Supply, is available for free! The guide points out useful materials that every 5S program needs to stay up and running from the beginning into the foreseeable future. As a bonus, most of those materials are long lasting compared to other solutions making them good choices for a long-term investment like 5S.
The guide will also help you understand the five core values of 5S, those include:
- Sort: Sort through your equipment in an area and get rid of objects you don’t need. Get rid of that clutter!
- Set in Order: Everything must have its own designated place to keep everything neat and tidy. This will make things much easier to find later on when you need them.
- Shine: Use a schedule to maintain an organized workplace. This includes cleaning regularly and performing maintenance on equipment that needs it.
- Standardize: Written protocols can help cement new habits within employee routines for a 5S program.
- Sustain: Keep going with these steps! Creating a new work culture regarding continuous improvement is important because it’s what helps 5S programs thrive and stay active later on.
Implementing a 5S program will open up new doors to other modes of Lean manufacturing as well. For example, Kanban is used as a scheduling tool for eliminating waste or Gemba walks may become useful for hazard identification or spotting areas that need further improvement. Eliminating hazards and waste is the name of the game with continuous improvement and it always starts with 5S.
You are well on your way to improving working conditions and meeting production goals with the information that this 5S guide will give you. Make use of it and get started improving your workplace today.
Additional Resources
- 5S System– creativesafetysupply.com
- Climbing on Board with a New 5S Program– 5snews.com
- Setting up an Effective 5S System– lean-news.com
- Floor Marking: A Valuable 5S Tool for the Workplace– realsafety.org
- 6S or 5S – The Great Debate– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Safety in the Workplace and 5S– hiplogic.com
- Lean Manufacturing Implementation – The First 5 Steps– iecieeechallenge.org
- What are the 5S’s?– babelplex.com
- Safety Goals for the New Year– creativesafetypublishing.com