The Toyota Production System - The 5S Approach

The 5S approach is taken from the Toyota Production System (commonly referred to as JIT Manufacturing). The S's stand for:

  1. Seiri - keep only what is absolutely necessary, get rid of things that you don't need, i.e. simplify
  2. Seiton - create a location for everything, i.e. organize
  3. Seiso - clean everything and keep it clean, i.e. cleanliness
  4. Seiketsu - implement Seiri, Seiton and Seiso plant wide, i.e. standardize
  5. Shitsuke - assure that everyone continues to follow the rules of 5S, i.e. stick to it
In my plant, we have begun implementation of the 5S approach, in conjunction with Kontinuous Improvement Through Evolution teams and six-sigma. 5S is simple to begin and gives good benefits. Each individual in my organization was asked to get rid of overburdening items. We now plan to have a red tag attack.

A red tag attack is the strategy of a group of people going through the plant and putting red tags on everything that has not been used within the last 30 days. The items that people feel are necessary to "hold on to" must be justified to their superior, or the item is taken out of the plant!

Another example of something that we have done: To facilitate our rapid changeover team, we created a box that holds all of the tools necessary for changeovers. This box has a specific location for each tool, cable, pipe and hose. During a changeover, the person performing the changeover does not have to search for any tool necessary to complete their task. This is an example of Seiton.

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