D
Demetrius
Hi I have recently been placed as the team leader for the implementation of 5s in my department. I was looking for advice that any of you may have concerning getting the employees involved. Thanks 
5S Project Implementation: Need advice about getting employees involved
Wes Bucey
Prophet of Profit
Every great journey begins with the first step
Welcome to the Cove!
Have you searched the Cove for stuff on 5S? Do you feel confident you are very knowledgeable about the topic to present yourself as an "expert" to the team?
How much experience do you have in motivating people? We don't want to burden you with "baby steps" if you are ready for "giant leaps."
Welcome to the Cove!
Have you searched the Cove for stuff on 5S? Do you feel confident you are very knowledgeable about the topic to present yourself as an "expert" to the team?
How much experience do you have in motivating people? We don't want to burden you with "baby steps" if you are ready for "giant leaps."
Claes Gefvenberg
Admin
Like Wes said: Welcome to the Cove I also agree that a bit of extra information about your setup and current situatio would help us to provide better advice.
/Claes
I also agree that a bit of extra information about your setup and current situatio would help us to provide better advice./Claes
Yup...welcome to the Cove! Towards the top of your screen, Demetrius, you'll see a dark blue bar with yellow font, indicating some options for you. The "Search" function (with the upside down triangle) is a great feature to try out! Type in 5S and loads of threads where we have discussed this concept will appear.
If they do not address your question, getting more information from you will help us to share our experiences with you.
Items such as:
- Are you in a unionized or non-unionized environment?
- ISO 9K/14K, TS16949 or OHSAS 18K registered/compliant?
- Size?
- Departments?
- Safety record (no need to publish it here, but that could be a great tie-in to 5S)
- Commitment from management? (i.e., why do they wish to implement a 5S programme?)
- ...and so on...
D
Demetrius
I feel that I am average in knowlage of 5s. I am dealing with about 50 employees in my department. Current situation is bad. We have tried to implement 5s around 3 times in the last few years. Problem was nobody followed though with it, mainly due to changes in management. There are alot of empolyees that care and have wonderful ideals, but because of the failures in the past are very reluctant to join a 5s team. I have a few ideals in how to gain their trust, take the two problems they address the most and improve these areas. These two areas involve the other managers and Maint. department. After suceeding there I will ask for empolyees to join a 5s team. As of right now we have nothing to show that we are for real this time.
Management is behind this effort, and I am working directly with my manager.
We are TS compliant and there are considerible amount of safety issues that we are working on. Thanks for the replies.
Management is behind this effort, and I am working directly with my manager.
We are TS compliant and there are considerible amount of safety issues that we are working on. Thanks for the replies.
B
Bill Pflanz
Demetrius said:Hi I have recently been placed as the team leader for the implementation of 5s in my department. I was looking for advice that any of you may have concerning getting the employees involved. Thanks
Everyone is giving advice on the tactics of 5s which is great but to get employees involved you need management support and commitment. Your second posting indicates that you did not have management support. No one followed through with the other attempts since there was management changes which means you did not have constancy of purpose within your organization. If the implementation of 5s or any other initiative is dependent on an individual rather than being part of a strategic objective of the organization, it will fail.
You also indicate that they are interested in solving two problems 1. with other managers 2. with the maintenance department. They are not interested in working on 5s within their area unless you can show someone outside of their area is successful first. More than likely those other 2 areas are saying the same thing about other managers and other areas. Why not have management start 5s in all areas and learn from each other? If management is really interested in implementing 5s then they would be telling each department manager they are responsible for it in their area. Those managers that don't want to participate can be free to leave.
My response may sound idealistic but that does not mean impossible. Covers who have been successful in their quality implementations all had that type of management support.
Bill Pflanz
Demetrius said:
If Management is truly behind this effort and honest-to-goodness wish to support it and provide the resources required to make 5S a success...then they should have absolutely no probelm in being a pilot area!
Time to 5S the office! Once they are rolling, bring representatives from the floor through the office, show them how it can be done.Granted, an office environment differs from production, but the overall concepts of 5S are the same.
Don't forget, that if you're the 5S champion, your area needs to be 5S, as well. It won't do if it's cluttered and looks like a hurricane recently passed through.
For us, though, buy-in was (and still is, to a point) difficult to get. It's hard to have someone who has done the same old thing for 25 years suddenly change his ways.
Most companies approach 5S initially as a house-keeping exercise. Sorting and simplifying. They think that throwing out the garbage and slapping on a coat of paint is enough to inspire people. What I have noticed with our production personnel, is that the safety approach gains the most interest...along with some healthy competition.
If hoses are constantly left out and consitute a tripping hazard, 5S should involve the obtaining and proper installation of hose racks. And folks should use them.
Create a competition between departments...who can get to the 3rd S the fastest or see who has the higher score after 6 months. Pizza party or bbq for all!...but winning department gets t-shirts or a charity donation made in their names (i.e., tax receipt).
W
wmarhel
RCBeyette said:
This is exactly correct. I had the opportunity to tour Eaton's Aeroquip facility out in Indiana during a conference about six years ago and this is exactly what they did. They even had a big, pink, plastic flamingo that went to the department with the highest score during the routine audits. For the people, it was a source of pride to have that ugly thing in their area.
Breaking a facility down into areas also allows peer pressure to come into play. Its one thing to have your supervisor say an area is a mess, its another to have your friends/coworkers giving you a ribbing everday during lunch.
It really helps to get the people involved in the rollout by allowing them to set a theme, rewards for milestones, etc. In order to be truly successful, the people need to feel that it is their program, and not just another "management" program.
Wayne
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