Duration, When, Costs and Value of 5S

Duration of 5S

5S is not a project. It is a continuous activity to be performed across the business; however it is likely that with the first implementation a significant amount of time may be required, especially if you want some immediate gains; if much “stuff” needs to be cleared out or significant painting needs to be undertaken. This will soon pan out to a continuous level of repetitive 5 or 10 minute activities as well as repetitive maintenance type activities.

 

When to do 5S

Immediately! 5S is the corner stone of the visual workplace and forms a fundamental aspect of a Lean or Agile manufacturing environment. It may be tempting to go for SMED to get more direct and obvious gains but all Lean implementations succeed or fail upon their 5S building block.

 

Costs of 5S

The costs of 5S are difficult to quantify, however few resources outside the factory or office involved are utilised and no new equipment needs to be purchased. The most direct cost involved will be laminations and printing costs, which can be a lot. Indirect costs incurred by taking up staff time are minimal as it is preferred to utilise daily production meetings to progress 5S. Immediate gains may incur some overtime costs either for painting or good clear outs. Finally a non-cash prize may be beneficial, especially if it’s a team exercise. This can be anything from a barbecue day to some sort of extreme activity such as go-karting to paintballing, importantly let the teams decide, they might want refurbished toilets or a better canteen.

 

Value of 5S

Once you’ve done 5S you’ll wonder how you managed without it. Especially since it improves morale and ownership of the work place, encourages participation and continuous improvements. Productivity will increase as will quality, but this may be difficult to quantify and attribute unless a good measurement technique is in place. The value of 5S is to use the ingenuity of your staff not to spend money on new equipment, this links improvements and the elimination of problems back to your staffs ideas.