Apply 5S to see results in your small business

Thanks to Morguefile

It often seems like in order to actually make an improvement you need to spend money.  But with so many programs, seminars, tools, marketing agencies, new products and much more it’s hard to know what to actually spend your money on.  5S is your solution. 5S is a great way to achieve results with zero $ and very little of your time!

Lean 5s Definition: It’s simple, each “S” stands for something different and as you may have guessed, there are 5 of them!

Originally created by the Japanese also with 5 S words, Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke.  Here they are in English:

1.  Sort – Eliminate un-needed things.  Get rid of waste.  Dispose of unrelated materials.

2.  Set – Arrange everything so it’s placed wherever needed.  Have workers, work, materials and tools placed so that there is a proper flow to your process.  The object of this is having everything placed so that your “flow” has no waste in it.  And so you can spot the waste and eliminate.

3.  Systematic Cleaning – Clean everything – workbench, floor, tools, materials, any workspace, and organize.  Every shift should finish with cleaning and placing back in order so it’s ready for next shift.  Make sure everyone cleans. (I’ve been to businesses where the CEO’s have their weekly cleaning schedule just like everyone else.  A great way to lead by example.)

4.  Standardize – Standardize any procedure related to above steps.  Standardize so that it can easily be done again.  Standardize so that the level is maintained.  Improvement only comes after standardization.

5.  Sustain – One of the hardest parts of any business process.  “Sustain.”  Ensure rules to make sure people maintain the procedures. Do not make the mistake of telling your employees to clean up after their shift, or before…  Allow time for this.  Allow adequate time.  This is hard to do since everyone feels like they are losing out on their “most valuable time” which is that of “actually working.”  However, this is where you need to understand the power of 5S (which is just a starting point), and how 5S can lead to more productivity, which ultimately negates the lost time spent on cleaning.  Provide time for this, and you will see the results in many other areas including work productivity.

5S Lean is a technique used in Lean Manufacturing, in fact, used in any company that is applying lean principles.  Most successful companies you ever visit, even the ones that in no way associate themselves with Lean are usually doing some kind of 5S application.  Why? Because when you start on the path to Lean, a lot of the experts agree that one of the best places to begin is by applying lean 5S. As such, it doesn’t matter if your business provides a service or a product, or you consider yourself to be the complete opposite of a manufacturing company.  5S should be something you do simply as an individual.

5S should be considering the building block of many things.  If your small business needs some improvement, (Hint; all businesses always need improvement) then this is for you.  If you are looking for a good, achievable goal, then try 5S.

A good way to start is by starting small.  Do not go into this by applying an hour each day to this.  Start by simply applying 5 minutes of 5S before production begins.  Give each employee a list to work on.  Slowly build it up.  What you will notice is that once you apply this daily, you will not need to spend strenuous amounts of time cleaning or organizing.  The 5S process will take care of all this.

Try it now, apply 5 minutes and see the results.  The beauty of this process is that it will uncover problems that were otherwise hidden under the “waste” and were hindering the business.

One option for implementing 5S: Write out a sheet with the 5S and put them up on the walls with a quick description of each S so employees can quickly grasp what each part means.  Then explain in one sentence how they can apply 1 minute to each part.  So for example, using “Sort,” you could write out: “take one minute to get rid of any garbage, unrelated materials, and tools within your work-space that is not adding value to your current job.”  And so forth…  5 minutes from each employee applying this will work wonders.