5 Minute 5S+1

Do the math … 12 people who can devote 5 minutes daily will provide you with an hour of improvements which can amount to over 250 hours annually … can you imagine what your facility would look like if you could divert 250 hours towards enhancements?

Leaders, Employees and investors adore clean well organized environments. Why?, because it gives the facility the appearance of being safe, efficient and professional looking.

Many approach getting their facility clean and organized as a daunting task ... which it should not be. Often we see organizations pause to become "Tour Ready", but why should we be doing this for visitors? aren't our employees just as deserving?

So it does not come as a surprise that 5S becomes the common starting point for organizations to use to embark on their Lean Journey. However, many jump to solution with a frantic 5S+ 1 initiative without doing some preliminary thinking and planning first. But we will return to this topic later in the article.

Most of the organizations we work with seem to resonate with our suggestion of integrating the theme of “5 minute 5S+1” into daily activities. Usually the intended topic is captured while doing Daily Report-Outs and documented on the board.

5 Minute 5S+1 is built on the theme that many hands can make a large task seem small. Do the math … 12 people who can devote 5 minutes daily will provide you with an hour of improvements which can amount to over 250 hours annually … can you imagine what your facility would look like if you could divert 250 hours towards enhancements? Nearly every employee can find some miscellaneous minutes during a busy work day. What we want to do is to divert some of those minutes towards enhancing and improving our work environment. 5 Minute 5S+1 should not be limited just to the shop floor but should also be applied within the office.

Unfortunately, as many organizations adopt the concept of 5 Minute 5S+1 it just seems to stimulate random acts of organization without supporting a master plan. Or it just seems to focus on the “Sort” portion of 5S+1. And then when we conduct a return visit people are returning to the same location to re-perform their 5 minute 5S+1.

To make your 5 Minute 5S+1 more effective start with the creation and communication of a 5S+1 master plan. Your master plan needs to include policies related to color, label standards along with the following traditional questions being answered;

· What is the purpose or function of the area? · What activities are performed in the area? · How do people know what to do? · How do they know how to do it? · How do they know how they are doing?

· How will material be conveyed?

· What are the production and replenishment triggers? · What is done if performance expectations are not met?

5S should not be an activity but needs to be a justifiable investment of both time and

money. The team should start with a conversation and the Creation of a Visual Standard Work Instruction and also completing A spaghetti diagram. This will be necessary to conduct a root Analysis on how the area became di