"5S at Deceuninck North America's Monroe Site: Sustaining and Improving the Gains"
Target
2005, Third Issue pp. 27-36 (available online at www.ame.org)
Deceuninck North America introduced the 5S approach to orderliness, cleanliness, and standardizing work areas in 1999. The English words "Sort, Simplify, Systematic Cleaning, Standardize, Sustain" represent the original five Japanese words "Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke". From the beginning, management understood that the "Sustain" aspect would be crucial if the 5S approach was to have any lasting effect.
A full-time 5S facilitator was initially appointed for the 250-associate facility. The facilitator also acted as the auditor for 5S certification in the facility. Twenty-three out of 27 work areas are now 5S certified. After certification, there are three or four sustaining audits for each work area each year. Reports are sent to the departmental management group. Management comments on all area audits. Performance reviews include comments about the work area's 5S performance.
The shift in discipline and work culture from the 5S effort has spread to other arenas:
- The employees feel more empowered in general
- There has not been a lost time accident since 5S was introduced
- $3 million has been saved from less scrap and rework
- The accuracy of shipments has increased from 89.0 percent to 98.5 percent
- Productivity has improved 23 percent
The disciplined habits from the 5S program also helped expedite the implementation of a Total Productive Maintenance effort in 2004.
A valuable aspect of this article is that it provides a number of 5S audit sheets that could be adapted for use by other companies.
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