INGENIEUR
5S – Five Keys To A Total
Quality Environment
FEATURE
By Ir. Dr Oh Seong Por, Samsung SDIEM
A
manufacturing oriented business is
very much like a team sport. There are
people who are managers, some who
are supporters and many are players. The best
team to stand a chance of winning is the one
whose members are committed to perform each
respective task to the required level. The key to
success is total committed participation to the
process and not only from management. Although
management is the main driver of the company’s
initiatives or goals, focused effort by engineers,
technicians or line supervisors and dedicated
effort by shop floor operators must resonate with
each other to ensure success. However it is hard
to remain committed to the effort, if the workplace
environment is not right. This is where the 5S
movement comes in.
Toyota which has been ranked as the most
admired automobile manufacturer is considered
the champion in developing and implementing
a company wide 5S movement. It actually set
the right environment for its shop floor people
to focus on continuous improvement, leading to
the establishment of Toyota Production System
or TPS. Similarly, Nippon Denso the supplier
for Toyota adopted the 5S movement which
eventually became a solid foundation for the
development of the total preventive maintenance
programme or TPM, a powerful innovative tool to
eradicate machine breakdowns, prolong machine
operationing life and improve overall equipment
efficiency.
The success of 5S has attracted many
organisations in many varied fields besides
manufacturing to embrace 5S movement. 5S
which was originally geared towards improving
efficiency and productivity at the production
floor level, has now been adapted by many
organisations and applied as a management
technique to promote positive behaviour
change in employees that leads to better job
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VOL 55 JUNE 2013
performance, work responsibility, ownership spirit
and teamwork. It is no surprise to see that many
service and public sector organisations are also
actively engaging in the 5S movement.
What is 5S
5S is a series of teamwork activities to transform
and maintain an orderly, neat and clean
workplace that supports total quality environment
initiatives for higher productivity, output
and quality. It also promotes safe workplace
behaviour and encourages total participations
of team members to carry out continuos
improvements. The term 5S is derived from the
Japanese words representing the elements that
drive transformation in the workplace. They are
Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke which
can be equally translated as Sort, Stabilize,
Shine, Standardize and Sustain. The words
have also been translated into Bahasa Malaysia
as Sisih, Susun, Sapu, Seragan and Sentiasa
Amal. In Europe, a similar 5S movement has
recently been established which is known as 5C,
representing similar transformational elements
called Clear, Configure, Clean, Conformity and
Custom. A pictorial description of 5S activities is
shown in Figure 1.
Objectives of 5S
Below are the major objectives of 5S:
i. Create a clean, neat and well organi sed
workplace for total quality environment
initiatives;
ii. Establish visual management to improve work
efficiency and eliminate waste;
iii. Promote positive behaviour change in
employees and encourage continuous
improvement;
iv. Promote good teamwork through total and
dedicated participations; and
v. Improve the safety factor at workplace