5S for Small Businesses: The Benefits and Principles | TQMI

The Principles And Benefits Of 5S

5S is a process that delivers outstanding results in the areas of quality, productivity, cost, efficiency, and safety. 5S also helps in boosting staff morale and improving the company’s image. The process involves cleaning away the workplace to get rid of clutter and unused items, tools, and machinery, and putting everything that is important in the right place. However, this is not a one-time process. The constant cleaning and the process of putting stuff in the right place needs to be consistently maintained so that the main goal of 5S, which is to achieve higher goals of work improvement, can be achieved.

Principles of 5S

The five main principles of 5S are Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. With the implementation of these five principles, any kind of wastage, inefficiency, and unsafe conditions are brought to knowledge, which can then be dealt with.

• Sort – This includes identifying all the necessary items in the workplace, and removing all the unnecessary ones.
• Set in order – Once the necessary items are identified, they are labeled, colour coded, and well organized in the right places.
• Shine – This process involves the cleaning up of the workplace thoroughly.
• Standardize – This step makes sure that all the team members are trained on the above three steps and know how to perform them with consistency.
• Sustain – Here, a monitoring system is set up to observe that the organized and standardized workplace is being continually maintained.

Benefits of 5S

You can understand how beneficial 5S can be with the organized structure of the workplace that is continually sustained. However, to further understand the benefits in detail, here is a short list.

• Quality – With the implementation of 5S, there is a designated place for everything that is needed, and all the items fit into their own space, thereby minimizing mistakes and errors in getting hold of the needed item. This in turn reduces wastage of time, and also improves the quality of work.
• Productivity – 5S helps in eliminating waste in terms of items, tools, machinery, and equipment; and in turn systems, processes, time, and efforts. All of this subsequently results in improved productivity, increased uptime, and higher efficiency.
• Safety – With the removal of clutter, it is obvious that any and all kinds of hazardous and dangerous conditions will become visible. This will help to deal with them and avoid, or at least reduce, any kinds of accidents or negative incidents to occur.
• Employee morale – Involving all the employees in the processes of 5S also allows their inputs and suggestions for further improvement of the workplace and its processes and maintenance. This involvement boosts their employee morale and motivates them to work better, thus further enhancing the productivity in the workplace.
• Company image – Finally, with all of the above achieved that includes quality, productivity, safety, employee morale, and an organized workplace, a better image of the organization is generated, which results in better business and growth.

So, you can see how 5S plays an important role for every organization to boost its image and quality. If you are looking for implementing this Lean tool within your office, shop, or any other workplace, you can opt for TQMI’s 5S training program in India that will help you create a safe, productive, and error-free workplace, where employees will love to work, and business will grow.