Implementation of 5S in a small company

[krb.jipms]

Hi Palmer,

I'm glad to see that you have seen what is possible through 5S. However, many companies never get to the other 3S' and concentrate on seiri-seiton. How are you doing with the rest?

It may be a little late to comment on your naysayers, but for others who might read this thread, it is inevitable that some will resist. I'm going to use TPM rather than 5S since 5S is but a part of a larger program. We have a philosophy of 2-6-2. 20% are TPM happy, 60% are TPM neutral and 20% are TPM angry. Basically, you ignore the bottom 20% and make people in the top 20% your TPM promotion and development personnel, and change the middle 60 little by little.

As someone also mentioned earlier about management sinking in teeth, it is absolutely essential that commitment from top management is expressed very publicly. Good ways to do this is to participate in initial cleaning and frequent shop floor visits and interaction with personnel and especially with the TPM/5S team.

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[palmer]

We realize that 5S is but a component of larger programs but we had to start on the ground floor. We have ventured into lean with our 5S team but are still maintaining the 5S's.

We are constantly tweaking what has been improved, organized and cleaned. Over the last 7-8 months things have changed a lot in our facility. We are the "Lead Dog" in our corporation in implementing new ideas and improving processes. Our Plant Manager was promoted to a position at corporate to get all of production and sales in all plants on the same page as our facility.

We are the example being used and he was instrumental in getting all of the employees on the same page with 5S and the production improvements that were done. I'm constnatly getting emails and phone calls from other facilities on what we did and how we handled implementing these things.

It's been win/win for us.

 

[RaymondC]

Ok, dude. I read a lot in the thread but I'm still losing in some way...
How could I prove 5S to be a successful tool to top management?

 

[RoxaneB]

Ok, dude. I read a lot in the thread but I'm still losing in some way...
How could I prove 5S to be a successful tool to top management?

If you're looking for a straight $$$, you may not find one, however, let's look at how 5S can help an organization...

1. Safety - Hoses are put away. Spills are cleaned up. A clean work place = a safe work place.
2. Morale - Everyone would much rather come into a bright, clean work place.
3. Cleanliness - If equipment is kept clean, it's easier to identify potential problems (e.g., drips, leaks, etc.) and this will help in preventive maintenance thus saving money (i.e., keeping machinery well-maintained instead of replacing it when it breaks down)
4. Time - If everything is easy to locate and everyone knows where stuff is, it saves time on searching and more time on making product.

And those are just some basic examples.

 

[palmer]

Here is an example we used to justify toolboards:

Tools are spread out through the work area. The employee spends approximately 3 minutes looking for tools needed to use. This happens 4 times a day. You loose 12 minutes a day per shift looking for tools. Apply your hourly rate to the 12 minutes and times it the number of shifts per year. Not to mention the number of tools replaced due to loss. We saved over $20,000 annually in small tool replacement costs by installing toolboards

Air hoses: If you don't have retractable hose reels for air hoses, how much does a tripping accident cost annually? Usually one accident will be much more than the number of hose reels needed.

Can you do something else to organize a work area? What is the cost savings to organize with bins, racks, etc... versus time taken looking for parts?

There are lots of ways to find cost savings to justify 5S.

 

[Caster]

Ok, dude. I read a lot in the thread but I'm still losing in some way...How could I prove 5S to be a successful tool to top management?

Google 5S and Toyota for tons of examples.

 

[Caster]

We put new siding up on the outside of the building and hung insulation on the inside. What change this has made. We have a dusty environment (metal dust particulates) that settles on the white insulation. I'm working on finding something to clean this off. Another thing we did was purchase industrial vacuums for each machine. .

We had a similar problem with dust on the white plastic insulation inside the plant, almost impossible to clean.

We covered it with the same kind of metal siding used on the outside of the building, both walls and roof.

We used bright white siding, and what a difference it made. We used the vacuum to clean it when it got dusty, and washed it down 2X per year during shutdowns.

Nice to hear a real success story!

 

[palmer]

We had a similar problem with dust on the white plastic insulation inside the plant, almost impossible to clean.

We covered it with the same kind of metal siding used on the outside of the building, both walls and roof.

We used bright white siding, and what a difference it made. We used the vacuum to clean it when it got dusty, and washed it down 2X per year during shutdowns.

Nice to hear a real success story!

I like that idea. Putting up the insulation over the dark walls helped in brightening the work areas and using the steel siding would make it easy to clean.

The insulation was needed and is not fully installed in the facility but the areas we did it in is a huge improvement.

Getting a facility from focusing solely on production to making the facility better to attract better employees (not to mention safer) has put us in a better light in the area and does attract better employees.

They never cleaned, treated it as punishment to clean. No wonder it took so long to change the culture.

 

[Makrab]

Hi Palmer,

Glad to see u could achieve good improvements in your organization.

I'm not direct responsible for 5S implementation, but I'm a member of a task team assigned for 5S implementation.

After reading your success story I thought you and other can help me on following issue.

We are in steel fabrication using CNC machines. Some of our CNC machines are around 15-18 years old and in terrible but "working" condition. Our problem is these machines are leaking oil which spread all around machines. Maintenance Department try to reduce leakages and use strange containers and wood powder to collect oil. But this doesn't solve our problem.

Now, we are trying to find some way to stop spreading oil. I know we didn't eliminate the root cause but we are trying to tackle this issue with other ways.

Any bright ideas or suggestions on this issue???

 

[Marc]

After reading your success story I thought you and other can help me on following issue.

We are in steel fabrication

You might want to start a new thread to discuss your specific scenario, since it is going in this discussion thread which is Implementation of 5 S in a small company.