The '5s' system: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke

A. The following will be a good reference:

5S for World Class Manufacturing - Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu
See net1.ist.psu.edu/chu/wcm/5s/5s.htm

We have implemented procedures,

Your Gateway to Quality, Productivity, and Safety

• Seri (Say ree) - Sort and Discard
  Eliminate All unneeded items.
• Seiton (Say ton) - Arrange and Order
  Arrange all items that are left.
• Seiso (Say zo) - Clean and Inspect
  Clean all areas.
• Seiketsu (Say ket soo) - Standardize and Improve
  Maintain the first 3S
• Shitsuke (Shee tsoo kay) - Believe and Discipline
  Believe that the 5S are important

A. Another good book is Gemba Kaizen by Masaki Imai .
It is useful to know that some Japanese Companies now have the sixth ' S ' in the picture namely :" Shittkari " which means Security. How you interpret it with reference to your working and environment is left to you.

A. I think you'll have to get some form of textbook for a full explanation but the 5 S's are as follows

1. Seiri - Translates to Organisation
2. Seiton - Translates to Orderliness
3. Seiso - Translates to cleanliness
4. Seiketsu - Translates to Standardised cleanup
5. Shitsuke - Translates to Discipline

Lot of words for keeping the workplace tidy and organised! Comes from 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace by Hiroyuki Hirano. Regards,

A. Hello Jays,

5S is a widely practised in Japan. It is actually Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke. In English it translates to Organisation, Neatness, Cleaning , Standardization and Discipline. It basically improves physical environment and the thinking process.

For more information, try www.hkbu.edu.hk/~samho/tqmex/5s.htm

Good Luck,

A. I did a quick search on this site's search engine, and it looks like letter 3545 applies to what you're asking about. For more substantial information, you might search the web for some books on the subject.

A. The Basics Of The '5-S' Practice

A brief introduction to "5-S":

The "5-S" practice is a well-recognized methodology used by the Japanese to improve the work environment. A well-recognized methodology to improve work environment, the concept is fast catching up in many western countries. It has now evolved into a formal technique, which the Japanese believe is useful not just for improving the physical environment, but also for improving Total Quality Management (TQM) processes as well. Many everyday problems could be solved through adoption of this practice. It is also seen that many companies have included a few aspects of the "5-S" in their routine processes without being aware of its existence as a formal technique. In fact, the "5-S" can be applied to activities in all walks of life.

What does "5-S" stand for? The term "5-S" represents five words in Japanese namely, Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke. The English equivalents for these are Structurise, Systemize, Sanitize, Standardize and Self-Discipline. In other words, these "5-S" terms mean Organization, Neatness, Cleaning, Standardization and Discipline.

Organization (Seiri)

Organization is about sorting items (like tools, parts and materials), which are essential for a job from those that are not. Efforts should be made to select only the vital few and place them at convenient locations. The essence of organization is defined by:

Discard unwanted things
Organize the storage of parts, files and other items
Deal with the causes of defects, noise and leaks
Treat defects, leaks and breakages
Aim for the policy of "one is best" ---one-location file, one-stop service for customers, etc.,
Neatness (Seiton)

Neatness determines the rate at which things can be located or placed. It eliminates the time wasted in locating and placing things in an organization. In simple terms, it emphasizes on:

Clearly designated names and places
Functional placement of parts, tools and materials
Quick (30-second) and easy retrieval of documents, parts and tools
Neat and easy-to-read notice boards (with special attention to removal of old and obsolete boards)
Filing standards and controls
Zoning and placement marks
Arrangement for first-in, first out
Cleaning (Seiso)

In any organization, cleaning involves delegating individual areas of responsibility. Every individual should be thoroughly aware of his duties and responsibilities. In doing this, it is important that all assignments be absolutely clear and that there are no undefined, unallocated, or grey areas. This can be done by:

Assigning individual cleaning responsibilities
Adopting simple methods for cleaning and inspection
Regular cleaning activities
Cleaning even the less-noticed places
Standardization (Seiketsu)

This emphasizes strict and continual maintenance of organization, cleanliness and neatness. It includes personal and environmental cleanliness. It also implies standardizing the principles of "5-S" practice. By maintaining standardized conditions using visual management, employees are motivated to act fast in any circumstance. This necessitates:

Certification of inspections using labels, tags, etc.,
"Danger" warning marks and signs
Colour coding of files, pipes and containers
Responsibility labels
Preventing noise and vibrations
Directional markings on pipes and gangways
Discipline (Shitsuke)

Discipline involves instilling the ability of doing things as per the defined rules and regulations. This helps in building good habits like framing and following rules. Discipline, an integral part of industrial safety emphasizes on:

Following safety rules
Wearing safety helmets, gloves, shoes while at work
Executing individual responsibilities
Good communication practices
Practicing dealing with emergencies
Checking and following "5-S" practices always

Many successful organizations found that by developing a high quality work environment and instilling discipline in the form of procedures and work instructions, the employees devoted more energy and time to achieve results. The '5-S practice' has now become a highly appreciated technique in business, which not only helps to impress the customers but also to establish effective quality processes for good services and products.

A. According to 5S practices my personal feeling is that to implement 5S you need to change your attitude. Specially the self discipline!

A. Hello all,

All of you who have already implemented 5S and are rating high in competitiveness, please send me some of your organization pictures if possible showing the 5S working.

I am planning to implement 5S in my organization and I think showing my employees visually as to how 5S is helping other facilities in other countries will make them believe in this system.

Thanks,

A. Hi Jehan, Tan: If you follow the links to the Amazon books that are recommended and/or advertised on this page here, you can "look inside" some of them to see if they have a chapter on the history of 5S. I suspect that most do. Then you can see if your university library has that volume or can get it for you. Good luck with it! Regards,

A. Hi Miguel and folks,

The first reference you can access is by Takashi Osada:
<= "The 5S's: Five Keys to a Total Quality Environment. Osada is a founder of the 5S concept for industry use. He is working on TPM thus the book is TPM-oriented. The safety aspect is also included. A good reference as a general guidance, but old.

The next reference is books by Hiroyuki Hirano.
Hirano is a JIT consultant thus his books are all JIT-oriented. Other books, such as by Monden and Imai, adopted Hirano's reference.

The 5S within Toyota Production System (TPS) is illustrated by Jeffrey Liker: The Toyota Way [affil link on Amazon]. First you have to understand that this approach is to assist TPS.

Lean Thinking [affil link on Amazon] by Womack and Jones also touches on 5S with this perspective.

The origin of 5S is unknown but definitely not by Toyota (see, Taiichi Ohno's Workplace Management [affil link on Amazon]. The 5S was mainly used at schools for education purpose (but no reference because many books were burnt at war). The first application of 5S in business is for safety purpose. Studies show that 5S reduces incidents but also increases productivity and quality.

There are many How-To books. You can access them easily. However, quality of those books varies. For theses, you should not use them because they are empirical, not suitable for the academic purpose. Get journal articles, such as my studies on 5S. I detailed the historical background of 5S as well.

How effectively can we implement a 5S program? Ask consultants or go to their website. As I mentioned, 5S has multiple perspectives thus you should set the purpose of 5S first. The 5S for organizational excellence is a different story.

I am also writing a PhD thesis about how differently the concept of 5S is understood and applied in the West. It is not about how to implement a 5S program. My study found that 5S is no longer as housekeeping. In Japan, 5S is rather used for organizational development and change, such as to educate workers after M&A is executed.

Hope this comment would help.

---
Ed. note: Thanks, Kaoru. Truly helpful!

A. Hello Vishwas. I think that Manish offered a nice posting that might help you, and thread 21468 is titled "5S Audit procedure and samples", but I don't think forum postings can fully cover it. You probably will need a book on the subject of 5S audits and there are a number of them. Good luck.

A. The best way to complete a 5s audit is to have the people on the shop floor, office or any working environment to carry out the audit themselves with assistance, let them make a standard for the area but coach them into where they need to be going for improving the standards. Don't forget the people doing the job know the best way to do it.

A. Japanese are known for being the diligent and disciplined people on earth. One of their standards for keeping their values is the 5S, or the Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. Of the 5 values, Shitsuke is the most interesting.

We would like to know more about Shitsuke, and the advantages if these values are kept always in an organization. Maybe a group activity also can help, in order these Japanese Values can be maintained.

A. I have spent time with various Japanese consultants who are now pushing 70 or are in their 70's, and they point to an origin of the 5S approach in consulting work done by "Nihon Nouritsu Kyoukai," which is currently known in in many countries outside of Japan as the "Japan Management Association."

Although I have heard many stories about the first time certain people that I know heard about 5S as young men working in factories, I have not heard about any one person being its originator. First of all, the first 2 S's are a saying in Japanese: "SEIRI-SEITON" which under normal standards of translation mean simply: "spruce up" or "make everything shipshape." My impression is that posting the words "SEIRI-SEITON" in a workplace was a normal thing to do before they became the first two S's of what we now know as the 5S's. No one person can lay claim to the idea of posting SEIRI-SEITON, just as no one can claim to have thought of posting "ANZEN-DAIICHI" ("Safety First"), another saying one would normally see in an industrial workplace.

Among the stories I have heard, one anecdote is that the Nouritsu Kyoukai Consultants at Toyota (possibly Mr. Shigeo Shingo and others working with him or for him), after having quantified SEIRI by saying that its achievement was in removing items from the workplace, and SEITON by saying that its achievement was in designating fixed locations for items needed in the workplace, felt the need to reinforce the gains made by SEIRI and SEITON activities, and the chose the word SEISO (which means simply: "cleaning") because it fit the first two concepts, and it's alliteration made for a snappy slogan. This seemed to catch on, and the consultants eventually got to 5 S's. In fact, for many years Toyota only spoke of 4S's. Now, there are some companies that insist on 6 and 7 S's. But in any event, I think that the truth is that 5S originated with the Nouritsu Kyoukai Consultants who quantified "SEIRI-SEITON," which had become a trite and sometimes empty phrase, often seen in Japanese factories.