P5S is a highly effective tool for achieving and maintaining good housekeeping and organisation of the workplace. It identifies a place for everything and demands behaviour to maintain the defined order. 5S is more than just a “clean up” program. Effective 5S is a key foundation to implementing and foundation a lean production system.
TXM Practical, Sustainable 5S, (P5S™)
Despite its apparent simplicity, many companies struggle to sustain and improve P5S. This is because that while organising the workplace (the first three “S’s”) is straightforward, standardising and sustaining can be difficult.
The challenge that we find with normal 5S approaches is that the gains are not sustained. This is often because of poor processes to standardise and sustain the workplace. TXM has developed simple and robust systems for developing standards, maintaining compliance with routine daily tasks and auditing and continuously improving the workplace that put the responsibility and authority on front line leaders to maintain high standards in their work area. We call it Practical 5S (P5S™) because that is exactly what our customers tell us it is – a simple, practical robust system to achieve high standards of housekeeping and organisation. Read a P5S Case Study. Why is 5S Important? Read our Blog.
"Visual Control" of ingredients have made this Baker's job easier and more efficient.
The Key Benefits of P5S:
P5S establishes a standard for how the workplace is organised and ensures this standard is maintained and improved. This can be the first step towards standard work where the way tasks are performed is standardised.
P5S engages employees in improvement in a non-confronting way. Often it is the first time that front line employees have ever had an opportunity to provide input about how their workplace is organised. This then opens the door for broader engagement of teams in improvement.
P5S is often the first step to towards operator engagement in maintaining equipment. Routine tasks to check, tighten and lubricate equipment can be added to routine cleaning tasks to lead to improved equipment performance.
P5S provides a basis for introducing standard work and standard set up techniques. P5S sets an expectation that the workplace will be controlled and organised in a standard way and that processes exist to manage deviations from the standard. Once we have used P5S to standardise the way the workplace looks, it is easier to make the step to standardising the way that work is done through standard work. In regard to machine set up, P5S usually identifies the key tooling needed for setting up the machine and determines where this should be located. This naturally leads to a discussion of the way set ups are performed and the introduction of techniques such as ‘single minute exchange of die’ (SMED).
Shadow Boards and Red Green Task Boards (or Kamishibai) are Effective P5S techniques used by this customer to organise the workplace.
The Elements of P5S are:
1 SORT OUT what is in the area to determine what is needed, what can be stored elsewhere and what can be disposed of.
2 SET IN ORDER the area by determining a place for everything and putting everything in its place.
3 SHINE AND CHECK the area by giving it a thorough clean from top to bottom in order to set a new benchmark for housekeeping and cleanliness and to reveal the sources of dirt.
4 STANDARDISE the workplace by establishing standards and procedures to constantly maintain the standard of the area. This can include checklists, simple tools to track regular cleaning tasks and setting clear roles and responsibilities.
5 SUSTAIN the change through agreeing processes to implement ongoing improvements & audit results. This establishes a culture of continuous improvement based around the ‘plan-do-check-act cycle’.
