Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Perhaps the 5S methodology has not been valued enough if compared with other Lean Construction tools.
However, it contributes to the reduction and elimination of the 8 wastes (overproduction, inventory,
transportation, motion, waiting, defects, over-processing, and non-utilized creativity); it increases people's
involvement, teamwork, morale, health and safety; it reduces costs, variability and uncertainty; and it help in
setting the basis to implement Lean Construction in any company or project.
1. SEIRI (SORT)
Seiri is about organizing and eliminating unnecessary items. Seiri has to do with the Toyota pillar of “Just-In-
Time” (JIT) -- “just what is needed, in the quantity needed, only when needed”. The red tags campaign is a
strategy to identify potentially unnecessary items in the workplace, evaluate their usefulness and treat them
appropriately. We have to ask (figuratively) the following three questions to any item in the workplace:
Keeping them in a red tags area for a period of time to see if they are necessary.
Throwing away or discarding them.
Changing their location.
Leaving them in the same place.
Figure 1: 5S Red Tags
Figure 3: Shine
4. SEIKETSU (STANDARDIZE)
Seiketsu does not refers to an activity, but a state or condition. Seiketsu consist of building a strong set of
procedures to maintain the first 3S. In fact, it is the state that exists when the first 3S (Seiri, Seiton and Seiso)
are properly maintained. When implementing Seiketsu make sure you follow these three steps:
Decide who is the person in charge of maintaining the needed conditions to maintain
the first 3S.
Avoid setbacks by means of integrating daily maintenance.
Check the level of maintenance.
Seiketsu has also to do with the concept of Visual 5S: everyone should be able to distinguish between normal
and abnormal conditions at a glance.
When the same problem occurs again and again, it’s time to go to the next level: prevention and root cause
analysis:
5. SHITSUKE (SUSTAIN)
Shitsuke (sustain and discipline) means turning into a habit the fact of maintaining the correct procedures. You
can use 5S slogans, posters, visual panels, newsletters, and visiting other departments or companies
(benchmarking).
Some final tips to sustain the 5S:
Train employees.
Build a team for implementation.
Assign time and develop a program for implementation
Provide resources for implementation.
Recognize and support the implementation by managers and directors.
Stimulate creativity of all workers, listen to their ideas and allocate resources to develop
those ideas.
Create tangible and intangible rewards for the effort.
Figure 5: Sustain
5 things you need to know for a successful implementation:
REFERENCES
1. Greif, M. (1989), The Visual Factory: building participation through shared information. Productivity Press,
Portland, OR, USA.
2. Hirano, H. (1988), Just in Time Factory Revolution: A pictorial guide to factory design of the future.
Productivity Press, Portland, OR, USA.
3. Hirano, H. (1995), 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace: The sourcebook for 5S implementation. Productivity
Press, New York, USA.
4. Hirano, H. (1996), 5S for Operators: 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace. Taylor & Francis.
5. Suzaki, K. (1993), The New Shop Floor Management: empowering people for continuous improvement.
The Free Press, New York, USA.