✂
Make sure the system keeps working
- Sustain new practices and conduct audits to maintain discipline
- Reward for maintaining is greater than departing
- The key to long-term success is diligence.
- Develop a sense of self-discipline in employees who will participate in 5S.
Sustain is the long term goal and most challenging step of the 5S method where standardized procedures must be continuously applied until it becomes hapitual. Without sustaining, things fall apart and 5S concepts are forgotton.
- Periodic training of staff
- Refresher training for staff
- Periodic internal support supervision by QIST (Quality Improvement Support Teams)
- Periodic self-monitoring by WIT (Work Improvement Teams)
- Quality competitions and awards for good practice
- (Original) 5S poster development and display
- Establishment of 5S corner within department/section and frequent updating
- Display of 5S progress chart, table, and graphs
- Continue to develop the system
- 5 minute 5S
- Involve people in the development of the system (get everyone's input and buy-in)
- Build the system right the first time to eliminate the possibility of discouragement or discontinued use
- Include Sustaining in the initial design of the system
- As leaders, be sure to follow the rules set by the team
- Develop the good habit of Sorting, Storing, Standardizing, and Sustaining everyday (it should become second nature)
Sustain focuses on taking all of the previous steps of 5S, including the standardized procedures, and transforming them into ongoing habits to ensure continuous improvement. Just having a basic system in place is not enough, and the existence of the Sustain step is a testament to this. When workers are required to do something new in the workspace, it will not become an automatic habit right away; it takes people time to actually form longstanding habits.
Implementation:
- Demonstrate. Anything expected of workers should be demonstrated correctly by a trained and knowledgeable professional. This is the portion where workers gain an understanding of what actually needs to be done.
- Supervised undertakings. Employees need to be worked with closely so they know what is expected. In addition, employees should be monitored through their first few attempts to make sure the daily 5S habits that are being formed are the exact habits needed and desired. Workers shouldn't be coddled through this. Mistakes should be corrected.
- Periodic check-ins. After the initial training, it is important to stay vigilant by utilizing the auditing techniques established in the standardizing step to regularly ensure that things are running smoothly. Having employees learn to properly do these checks can be helpful for positive habit forming as well.
- Make changes as necessary. Sometimes continued undesired behavior or undesired results come about as a consequence of a faulty system. If this is the case, find the fault in the original setup and correct it as necessary.
- Assign the time to do it Give your staff the time to do the steps correctly. For example, designate the fifteen minutes before lunch and shift end as Shine time. During this time, their main focus is cleaning and organizing according to their checklists.
- Start from the top. Your whole organization must be on board if 5S is going to work in the long run. If your employees see that management is not following the steps, do you think they will continue to do it?
- Create a reward system. Have friendly competitions between departments each month and reward the winner. Buy them lunch, let them go early one day, or give them priority parking. It doesn’t have to break the bank; you just want to show them your appreciation for a job well done.
- Get everyone involved. Form a committee made up of employees and supervisors of different departments. Their job will be to oversee the implementation of 5S for a fixed period, maybe six months. Then you can rotate in new members.
- Let them see it. Posters, banners, and newsletters can be a constant reminder of the importance of 5S.
Secret to Success:
- When a new employee joins a team that uses 5S, one of the best things to do is let current employees carry out the new employee's training. Teaching someone else how to accomplish a task requires one to evaluate his or her own knowledge, and workers can easily spot gaps that they may have questions about. Doing this also helps reinforce the ideas they are teaching, especially if workers have grown sloppy over time or deviated from the original expectations.
- Measure, don't just guess. Sustaining is about making adequate progress. The ultimate goal of 5S is to increase efficiency. The actual organizational steps taken on the way are components of this goal and shouldn't overshadow the larger endeavor. It is imperative to keep accurate tabs on whether or not the 5S effort has helped workers cut down on production times, accident rates, missing equipment costs, etc. over time. Use actual numbers and do not overlook the facts, even if they are not as impressive as hoped for.
- Properly sustaining 5S is about carrying out the task or concept time and time again until it becomes second nature. This can be a frustrating phase for both managers and employees, so it is important to ensure communication is open, factual, and constructive, while being free of accusations.
References:
- Pojasek RB. Five S's: A tool that preparres an organization for change. Environmental Quality Management (Autumn 1999) pp.97-103. www.epa.gov/lean/
- Creative Safety Supply 5S Training and Research Page. www.creativesafetysupply.com/content/education-research/
- Creative Safety Supply 5S Guide. www.ksre.k-state.edu/agsafe/announcements/
- Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi. Health care quality improvement manual for in-service training. February 2019 (Final Draft)