Lean Manufacturing

5S / Tool Control

The process known as Lean Manufacturing has become a common method of reducing costs by focusing on reducing waste. Lean Manufacturing identifies waste as anything that does not add value to the customer. Whether a product attribute or a manufacturing activity, lean strives to eliminate anything the customer is not willing to pay for.

The foundation of lean is a process commonly known as 5S. 5S focuses on workplace organization to eliminate as many non-value added activities as possible. If the workplace only has the required tools and materials, and is organized in such a way that those materials can easily accessed, many non-value added activities can be stripped out of the process. All five of these steps can be defined by an English word that begins with the letter S.

• Sort
  Focuses on eliminating all unnecessary items from the workplace. By eliminating unnecessary items, the work cell can be focused completely on the task required. Often this step of the process is completed by removing everything from the work cell and only returning the items required for the task.
• Straighten
  Once the work cell contains only the necessary items, organizing them so they can be easily identified and used efficiently takes out other unnecessary activities. If this step is done effectively, it is easier for the team in the work cell to do the task efficiently than it is to do it inefficiently.
• Shine
  The principle of the third step is that a clean and attractive work cell adds to the attitude of efficiency and professionalism. In this step, the work cell often employs new or refurbished equipment to improve the appearance of the cell.
• Standardize
  The step of 5S to be implemented after the first three steps have been accomplished several times. In this step, the work cells adopt the best practices of all the work cells. This step requires a sharing of information across the facility or the corporation to be successful. The more the work cells can adopt the standardized best practices, the easier it is to switch resources from one work cell to the other to meet demand.
• Sustain
  The last step and often the most difficult to accomplish. This step requires discipline to maintain the best practice and not revert to the old ways of performing tasks in a work cell. Success or failure in this step signals the work cell’s ability to continually improve. While 5S is the foundation for manufacturing improvement, one of the common misconceptions of 5S is that it is a linear process and that the work cell goes from step 1 to 5. the most effective manufacturing organizations us 5S as a continual process, because each time through the process identifies more non-value added activities that can be eliminated.