The human factor in 5S

implementation:
perspectives from Poland
Prepared By:
Bedayan Chakrabarty
Roll no. 13
Section- MB

The Lean System

The Toyota Production System is widely known as the best and most efficient system
in the world.

Lean manufacturing (also called Lean production and Lean management) originates
from Toyota and other Japanese companies which became famous by their quick
and impressive success in international markets.

5 S System

Sort clean up; eliminate what is not needed.

Set in order organize; put things at the point of use, in the amount required.

Shine clean the work area.

Standardize establish work methods and schedules to maintain cleanliness/order.

Sustain implement metrics, auditing, recognition systems (Greulich, 2009).

Association 5S system development went together with health and safety

development and productivity increase. The sixth S added by the Japanese
means work safety, and it reflects the promotion of safe workplaces and injury
reduction.

What are typical obstacles and key success factors

of the introduction of any changes in an
organisation?
The following barriers to change are fundamental business gravity:

Resistance to Change - People resist change (status quo bias). People resist change because they think the
change is going to make their life worse (e.g. complicate their job).

Past experiences - Past experiences of failure often act as barrier as employees think it will be a failure again

Integration - Integration of change from the top management to lower management takes time and
unsuccessful integration may cause an organization loss.

Complexity - Complexity of change is a fundamental barrier. In many cases, organizations simply lack the
requisite maturity to tackle a complex change. A fundamental principle of change management is to never
tackle a change that's too complex for your organization.

Do you feel that crucial element is the

human factor?
The role played by human factor in each of the 5 steps can be seen as:

Sort usually people support themselves by using red labels to mark equipment,
etc. that is not used and not necessary

Set in order after the first step immediately as people make all the equipment
easily accessible

Shine let the teams note down what spring cleaning job they want to do, and
ask them to estimate how often

Standardize the photo documentation of the new order and cleanliness is a kind of
standardization.

Sustain to appoint people responsible for all systems.

Is there any differences between

organizations and organizational cultures ?

Organizational culture would include all tangible and intangible behavioral aspects
of an organization.

It basically is about how things are done within an organization.

So to understand the culture of an organization one would need to look at its

systems, processes & procedures, it's technologies, it's people & their behaviors,
belief systems etc.

Utilization and introduction processes also differ between national cultures and
different businesses

What is the essence of 5S ? Being a Manager , do you

support the essence of 5S as one of the Lean
management techniques.
5S may look like a very simple management technique, but the importance of it should not be ignored:

This is a basic tool, but at the same time, it is a very powerful one; it is the beginning of the journey of
the Lean Way in an organisation

The impact of 5S implementation is noticed in many ways:

inventory reduction

efficient workplace usage

spare part search

time reduction

oil/water/air spill reduction

reduction of instability

Besides, these, 5S implementation helps in maintaining proper machine function,

cleaning and checking machine condition, improve working conditions, reducing
accidents at work, increasing discipline, improving the following of procedures, and
better relationships among employees

The practice of this technique is perceived as collections of organizational and cleaning

activities that shape the basic morality and ethics in the workplace, at school, and at
home

If you are a Manager, kindly share your

experience of 5S implementation in Bianor.

Bianor is an OEM for the best multinational brands, namely Philips, BSH,
Makita, Graco, and others.

The company operates on 56 injection-moulding machines with a clamping

force ranging from 50 to 900 tonnes.

Their monthly production reaches 5.2 million units. There are around 320
employees, who work in a 4-shift system ensuring 24/7 productivity.

People around moulding machines and assembly lines are organized in

teams and each team has a team leader.

The company has been growing fast recently. But modern technology is not
sufficient to maintain competitiveness.

According to benchmarking research the productiveness of the resources

could be improved significantly.

The CEOs decided to turn to Lean Way The 5S System

Initial response
Name

Designation

Stand

Reason

Anna

Team leader

No

Peter

Last time a lot of effort was put at the beginning, but after two months things
went back to the same place as they were before the 5S implementation.
All this chaos related to the implementation led us to production reduction

Injection
moulding
machine
operator

No

Gregory

Shift manager

Yes

Mess was one of the causes of producing defective parts. Maintaining order on a daily
basis and keeping the machines clean, could help to maintain the good technical
condition of equipment

Lukas

Operations
manager

Yes

Workers did not have time for cleaning. Even after a clean up, somehow it got
dirty again.
Moreover, we receive no bonus for cleaning. No one would be silly enough to clean
up for free

To be competitive, the company needs to grow and seek out new solutions. 5S is
the basis of all Lean tools.
If the organization was not able to implement the 5S method, something more
advanced, such as SMED could not be implemented
No one cared about cleanliness because they didnt know how important it is.
If unnecessary things were got ridden off, more work space could be gained

Schedule of activities

The first day was devoted to sorting. Identifying necessary and useless items was
not as easy as it might have seemed.

The second days task was setting all the essential items at the workstation in order.
Necessary equipment found its place in the area around the machine. Anna
prepared the boxes, baskets and boards for documents, production patterns, and
other necessary items. Gregory set and marked the place for them. Peter in turn,
designed by himself a shadow board for brooms and scoops

The third step concerned getting everything into a shinning state (cleaning). The
maintenance workers systematically cleaned up the machines, one by one. The
cleaning company cleaned up all the floors.

Schedule of activities (continued..)

In the fourth step, a checklist was created, and it would be created several times a
month. The audits objective was to supervise if the first three steps are
maintained. All areas covered by 5S would be checked.

After five days all the team members came together and discussed what had
happened in the past few days (Monday morning meetings).

Final response
According to Anna:

The final effect was great.

It was not so easy to build a neat workplace, everything seemed to be so

necessary.

They gained a neat and comfortable work place

According to Lukas:

It was only a pilot implementation. Next they had to prove to others that the
impossible was possible

According to Peter:

The 5S method was the first step to perfection.

It was a really interesting experience, and he would participate in future

projects of building a Lean company

Do you see possibility of further

implementation of 5S in Bianor ?
The 5 S proved to be a great success in the company.

The challenge that the company lied in spreading 5S system over the whole
organisation.

It is necessary to adopt a proper policy of spreading 5S considering previous

experience as much as possible.

The company should also work on on implementing the sixth S added by the
Japanese means work safety, as it reflected the promotion of safe workplaces
and injury reduction.

Being encouraged by the first success the company should continue the Lean way
beyond 5S.

Conclusion

Lean management exists in organizations in many ways.

According to the literature there are Lean philosophies, policies, and practices

The 5S method proved to be great success in Bianor and more organizations should
look forward to implement them.