What is 5s and how can it help your business?

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Originally Posted On: What is 5s and how can it help your business? – Incito

5s stands for five words in Japanese. Those words are:

• Seiri
• Seiton
• Seiso
• Seiketsu
• Shitsuke

When roughly translated into English, they stand for the following:

• Sort
• Set in Order
• Shine
• Standardize
• Sustain

5s is a system that works for numerous companies who aim to minimize waste, cut costs, all while bringing the same excellent product and brand standard to their customers. Every company looks to improve efficiency while decreasing production costs and cutting waste, which is no simple task. Using the fundamentals of 5s teaches us how to simplify processes and improve our workflow.

You can’t streamline your production process if you can’t locate the right materials and tools first. Manufacturing workplaces are often messy, making all tasks-at-hand increasingly difficult to achieve. Sorting is essentially laying the groundwork for your productivity.

You’ve sorted, now you can strategize. Bringing your team together to map out how to utilize your new organizational system is the next building block to creating an efficient workflow system. This keeps your sorting efforts intact.

The most overlooked component of a productive and efficient workplace is cleanliness. Not only does this tie-in to keeping the first two steps of 5s in place, but it makes for more productive workers and a stress-free environment. When each employee takes accountability for their environment, it keep the well-oiled machine moving.

This is where you come close to the home stretch of your 5s process. Sorting, setting in order, and shining only do so good if you can promote those habits. Once there’s a rhythm in place, normalizing these new procedures will keep an entirely different atmosphere (and more productive one at that) than you had before.

When you achieve four of the five steps, you’re on the threshold of a more productive work environment. You’re elevating your brand, and now it’s time to maintain those practices. This can be the most difficult aspect, especially if certain employees are unfavorable of the new practice taking place.

Remember that some employees will take part in 5s with more gusto than others, which is perfectly acceptable. Even if your entire staff isn’t thrilled about the changes taking place, they must comply to them to aid in sustaining. When you have difficulty implementing workplace 5s procedures on your own, there’s always Incito Consulting.