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Continually Implementing the 5 S System

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 by ksmith

After working for Setpoint for almost 4 years now I have come to expect the continual 5 S clean up around the office and the shop floor.  This year I was tasked with cleaning up our internal Company Intranet site and no sooner had I started that when I was tasked with going through the 5 S’s of sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain of our website.  After we found so much unneeded stuff on our Intranet we wanted to make sure our website wasn’t filled with a bunch of old or outdated information.

Sorting though and looking at what you have on a website seems to take a while because not only are you cataloging what is there, you’re making decisions on its importance.  Working at a custom automation company there have been many projects that we have done over the years, and from a marketing standpoint I wanted to emphasize all the capabilities that we possess.  However, from a company standpoint I had to consider which capability was a critical core competence that we wanted our potential customers to understand vs. a capability that is more of a commodity that most automation companies possess.

Straightening up the site required that I carefully go though the website and make sure everything had a consistent look, feel, and were in the same places.  For instance the lead generation form was important.  I know that I don’t like it when I go to websites and struggle to find the lead generation form or even to find my way back to where I came from so in straightening the information I have tried to make sure everything is set up the same.  I also felt that it makes it easier to go to various web pages if there is some similarity in where to go to find certain things.  For instance, under the about section there better be information about the company like their history, management, and press releases.  That’s what I have come to expect on other sites so I made sure it was the same for mine.

Shine is a little different on a website since you don’t have floors to sweep and polish, but it is no less important.  In shining the site I looked at the feeling or look of each page.  Does it have a clean look to it?  Is it really crowded or is it empty?  Shining for the website became the overall look and feel.  It’s hard to find your way around a site that is crowded and has a lot of extra stuff shoved into every corner.

Standardize came easily after sorting and straightening.  Once the importance of items had been established, the standardization of placing the content onto the website in a consistent way leads to a standard look and feel on each page.  Because each item had been sorted and straightened and the website “shined” the standardization fell easily into place.

Now comes the time of sustaining the changes made as well as sustaining the standardized process of placing new items onto the website.  It would be all too easy to just say whew we made it through that, but that’s not what the Toyota Production System (TPS) is all about.  TPS is all about continual change, making changes all the time to add value, continue to learn, grow and get better at what you’re doing.  That’s why continually running through the 5 S’s of sort, straighten, shine, standardize & sustain is so important.  Each time you go through the steps there will be new items to look at and work on.

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5 S Lean Intranet Cleanup

Thursday, April 15th, 2010 by ksmith

As a follow up to our 5 S Lean of the Intranet following the Toyota Production System’s lean philosophy, I finished cleaning up and redesigning our Intranet here at Setpoint.  We replaced the old Intranet with the new design a few weeks ago and so far it’s running smoothly.  After sorting through the more than 500 items we ended up with only 75 that we actually needed to keep.  Of those 30 are sales training audio files.  We found that in all there were 10 documents that were used the most and decided that we wanted to group them all together.

Figuring out the right headings took a few iterations.  For those 10 documents we started with Commonly Used but then when testing it no one thought it was a link to the documents they wanted, they thought it was some type of header above the other categories.  So I changed it to Frequently Used and still it was seen as a header when I presented it to everyone.  During that meeting they said why don’t you call it Stuff You Actually Care About, so we did.  Now all documents are only 2 clicks away, a far cry from the previous version.

Now comes the sustaining.  Every time we add a document we are going to verify if we really need it on the Intranet or if another location is the right place for it.

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Implementing Lean Manufacturing

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 by Clark

How far can you take lean manufacturing practices before you cross the line of what makes sense economically versus doing what a pure lean implementation tells you that you should be doing?

We have all heard the statement, “You were too close to the forest to see the trees.”  I think at times, in our eagerness to adopt lean manufacturing principles and practices we find ourselves “Too close to lean that we sometimes can’t see what makes sense.”

To illustrate this situation let me tell you about a company that was faced with a similar situation.

The company was a major player in the medical products/device manufacturing industry.  They had adopted a lean philosophy plant wide and had been following lean practices for about 5 years.  They had seen fantastic results as they broke down traditional methods and practices and followed the lean manufacturing principles to a “tee”.

They had done a superb job of connecting their processes in their various value streams and had managers of each area that believed in lean but were having a difficult time understanding how to decide what was right for their next efforts along the path of continuous improvement and lean implementation.

They were trying to achieve a single part flow into a low volume, high variety type of job shop assembly area.  They had established supermarkets for each the components that were required by each value stream.  In their hopes to fully connect the component manufacturing with the component demand in the value stream cells they were contemplating bringing some fabrication equipment into several of the value stream cells to reduce supermarket inventories of certain critical parts and to perhaps better connect the process.

The fabricated parts required multiple machine center resources to complete.  Many issues related to safety, cleanliness and process flow also needed to be considered.  The existing fabrication center was set up in a “U” shaped cell and actually ran very well.   Additionally, the existing fabrication cell supplied component and services to several other value streams within the plant.  After much contemplation and study, the group agreed that bringing the fabrication cell into the assembly areas would be a big mistake.

What came out of this study is that you can actually find better ways of fully connecting the processes in the overall manufacturing operations without actually having to physically locate all associated production tasks in the same cell.  With a little work and thought, the supermarket inventory levels were dropped, the communication of TAKT time demands were better established across the lines of fabrication and assembly, and the customer began to realize immediate benefits of better connecting their processes.

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5 S Process in an Assembly Shop

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by ksmith

Recently we talked about the 5 S process developed from the Toyota Production System.  Some believe that the 5 S process can only be implemented in a manufacturing environment and do not see the benefits of using this process to improve their work environment.  Here at Setpoint we have our design engineers in an office environment and our assembly technicians in a shop environment with both areas using the 5 S process. 

We made a video and put it out on YouTube to walk through our shop and show how the 5 S Process can be implemented in an assembly environment where we build one machine and ship it, then build a completely different machine.

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Whose Decision is it Anyway?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by Brad

It is way too easy to say that because I’m the boss, I decide. That is a very autocratic approach, and your company will only be as good as the dictator at the top making those decisions, and there has never been a dictator that gets it right all the time.

The opposite view might be that you require consensus with all those involved before a decision can be made. In my experience, very rarely will everyone agree unless the decision has no consequences or you have a team of suck-ups. Have you ever heard the saying, “if two people in a company always come to the same conclusion, one of them is not necessary”. Not making a decision because everyone is not at consensus can be paralyzing to a company. Being unable to decide is a decision also, which can have disastrous consequences

Setpoint is unique in that our culture promotes ideas and debate regardless of who is on the other side of that debate. Pretty much everyone at Setpoint feels comfortable enough to tell me when they think I’m up in the night, and that happens all the way up and down the organization.

I have worked in other places where there were taboo subjects that you could not talk about in front of certain executives or owners. That has an unbelievable stifling effect on ideas and choices that come forward and can be considered. The worst part is that those executives never engage their organizations brains and get the benefit from those that are working closest to the challenges.

Creating the right environment for deciding:

  • You must create an environment where ideas can flow freely, with no repercussions
  • Make sure it fits into the strategic direction of the company
  • If you are surrounded by smart people and they are telling you not to go the direction you are thinking, maybe you should stop and listen to them because you might not have the best idea
  • At the end of the day what you and everyone in your organization should want is the decision that best fits for the direction you are heading
  • Very rarely will you have perfect information and data to make your decision, nor will the same checklist work for all circumstances
  • In my career it has been more important to recognize when you are off-course rather than holding off deciding until you have all the data you need to make a decision
  • If you do not give credit to those contributing the idea, it’s not hard to know who will decide in the future, it will be you because no one else will put their ideas forward
  • Have milestones where you check the validity of the decision to see if it is on- track or if modifications need to be made

Good luck in creating an environment where good decisions can be made.

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Sustain - the Fifth “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 by Ken

After the first four S’s from the Toyota Production Systems improvement process have been implemented, the most important work begins.  If you have gone to all the work of setting up the system you must sustain or even improve on it to keep the system working properly.  Things change and you need to be flexible.  If something is not working the way you would like change it and keep changing it until you are satisfied. 

For instance, you should be able to tell at a glance if all the tools are in they place or if your hardware is running low, you may have to walk around and check some key spots each night to make sure the system is being used properly.

We are all very quick to form habits and by repeating these steps over and over it will be no time at all and your employees will be telling you when parts are low or things are not where they belong.

The 5 S System may seem like a lot of work at first and it is, but the benefits far out weigh your initial investment.

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Standardize- The Fourth “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 by Malorie

Now that the first three 5S’s (Sort, Straighten, and Shine) have been implemented, the next step is to concentrate on standardizing best practices in your work environment, also known as the Japanese term Seiketsu. This involves creating a consistent approach for carrying out tasks and procedures amongst all employees and departments. Orderliness is the core of standardization.

If the first three steps have been followed correctly then standardization should fall right into place with the help of all involved.  Standardization receives the most success when everyone knows their role and rules of their area and therefore can be involved in the development of these standardized rules because they are valuable for the information they deal with on a day to day basis. In the end, everyone should know exactly what their job responsibilities are and they should know exactly how to perform as well.

This process works very well at Setpoint because we work in a very fast paced and schedule driven environment where we usually can’t afford to lose a day when someone has an unforeseen absence. Therefore by following the 5 S system there is usually someone able to step in and pick up right where the last person left off without having to ask a thousand questions and wasting time looking for parts or tools.

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SHINE - the Third “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 by John

Following Sort and Straighten in the Toyota Production System 5 S System is Shine.  Shine is going through and cleaning up the work area.  At the end of the day each person needs to clean up their workstation, sweep the floors, clean off their desk, and return tools to their proper place.  This should be incorporated into every day routines.

When you take the time to “shine”, you are preparing for the future. Today’s workplace is full 0f inconsistencies and infractions.  There needs to be order and organization desperately.   Without the shine chaos starts to take control. 

So when you use it be sure to clean it by puting it back away every day so as to make everybody’s everyday tasks easier to complete.  That will make the world turn smoother than it did before.

To catch up on the series, here are links to the other posts:

Overview of the 5 S System

Sort - the First “S” of the 5 S System

Straighten - the Second “S” of the 5 S System

Standardize- the Fourth “S” of the 5 S System

Sustain - the Fifth “S” of the 5 S System

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STRAIGHTEN - The Second “S” of the 5 S System

Monday, October 26th, 2009 by Bryan

The first principal of the 5S system, Sort, is where you take and identify those items that are needed for you to accomplish your work.  Those necessary items are what we will now focus on.  Straighten, or Setting in Order, is the second principal of the 5S system.  In order for you to have an efficient work place, you need to have the correct tools and supplies close at hand and you need to be able to quickly find them.  Everything must have its place, and be in its place.

Looking at the desks in our building, mine has to be the most disorganized.  When I am done with a book or an item it is pushed out of they way rather than placed back where it belongs.  It’s a good thing the engineers are moved around so my desk gets cleaned up once in a while.  I’m forced into compliance, although I’m no where near as bad as someone who worked here several years ago.  On the other hand, my garage at home…  let’s just say that sometimes it takes more time to find the tools that I need for a project than it does to complete the project.  This principal of 5S is all about making your work area more efficient.  Setting up work stations or areas for work and having the correct tools and supplies in those areas are keys to becoming more efficient in the tasks that you do.

In the area that you have to work set aside areas for the storage of supplies and tools.  Keep the tools that you need more often closer to hand than those that you use less frequently.  Set aside a place for them and label it.  Shadow boards or cut outs in foam in your tool box are good examples of this.  Doing this allows you to quickly find the tool that you need.  It also allows you to know at a glance if you are missing any tools needed for the job at hand.  Totes or bins can be labeled and placed in the areas that are needed.  If you are working on an assembly line only have the tools and supplies that you need in your area.  Arrange them in a fashion that facilitates the work flow.  Minimize the clutter. Put tools in their designated place after they are used.  Keep a clean and organized work area.

By organizing and cleaning your area, you can maximize your efficiency and increase your work flow.   Greater efficiency and more work done makes for happy people.  For me this means more time to do an extra item on the honey-do list at home.  And this does make the Boss happy.

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SORT - The first “S” of the 5 S System

Monday, October 19th, 2009 by Bob

In using the Toyota Production System to improve your organization you need to integrate the 5 S processes from your desk to the production floor. The first “S” is to sort out what is and is not needed to do the required work in the work area.

Sorting the things you need to do your job on your desk, in receiving, in the production area, on the assembly floor, and any work area helps you work more efficiently and less prone to misplaced parts and tools. What do you sort? What do you need to do the job or task including tools, parts, and paperwork? If you don’t need it to do your job, it shouldn’t be in your workspace. Not only do you need to sort out what you need, but evaluating the proper quantities of each is also very important. One way to determine what you should have at your workspace is to use the 24-48 hour rule. If you are not going to need it in the next 24-48 hours, it doesn’t need to be in your workspace.

Here at Setpoint, we sort just about everything that comes in the doors, including our engineers. When parts are received a label is attached and the part is placed in a subassembly tote and the tote is placed on the projects rack. When there are enough parts for assembly to begin, the rack is moved to a specific assembly area designated to that project. The assemblers can go grab a tote and take it to their work area to begin assembly. When the assembler needs screws, wire, air hose, or a tool he can go to that rack or cabinet where everything is sorted by type and size. He takes only what he needs and continues working. When he reaches a stopping point or completes the assembly, everything is placed back in the tote and back on the rack. He then grabs the next subassembly tote and begins the build process again. At the end of the day everything is put back in its place, including totes, tools, and paperwork so it is ready to go the next day.

This sorting process has allowed us to be very efficient at building our projects. Any one assembler can go to any project and determine what can and needs to be worked on. We know where to find any tool, wire, hose, or fastener without searching the shop floor. I have worked at other companies where this sorting was “sort of” used (pun intended), and it makes for a long day when you are searching for the part or tool you need because it was not returned to its sorted place.

As I mentioned before, not only do we sort the products coming in our door, but we sort our engineers as well. Depending on our current projects, our engineers get sorted into different teams to utilize their talents and experiences. Yes, this means moving our computers and our stuff from one area to another. I have been sorted at least five times in just over three years. Sometimes this can be a pain, but this sorting helps the team’s communication and makes the design process much more efficient. It also gives us a chance to sort out the accumulation of stuff from our workstation and place it in the proper place–the garbage.

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