A System in Minds and on the Shop Floor
Let's face the facts: chaos costs money. It costs time. And it costs a lot of unnecessary frustration. When you have to spend minutes searching for a tool, a part, or a document, it's pure wasted time. A colleague didn't put it back again, and of course, you need it right when a deadline is looming. Sound familiar? Well, 5S solves this exact problem.
Many people dismiss it, thinking it's just some Japanese cleaning fad. This is the biggest mistake. 5S is not a spring-cleaning campaign; it's a hardcore efficiency improvement methodology. A system that, if you do it right, weeds out the unnecessary, brings logic into daily routines, and produces results that will surprise you. Its essence is the elimination of muda, or waste. Searching, unnecessary movement, and waiting are all forms of waste. 5S targets these at their root.
Let's see what those 5 S's actually mean in practice.
1. S: Seiri (Sort) – The Ruthless Selection
This is the first and most important step. The rule is simple: if it's not needed for the work in that specific area, it goes. The question isn't "might this be useful someday?" but rather "is it needed here and now for daily tasks?" The sad truth is, what doesn't add value, takes it away. It's incredibly difficult to work in clutter.
The most effective method is "red-tagging." Go through the area and stick a red tag on everything you're not sure you need. Collect these items in a designated holding area. Give it a grace period, say 30 days. Anything that hasn't been touched in that time can be scrapped, sold, or moved to a storage area for rarely used items. The key is to get it out of the immediate workspace. This is where you have to overcome the hoarding mentality.
Overcoming "hoarding" is not as simple as it sounds, as one of the seven characteristic human motivators, the economic motive - or more precisely, its excessive distortion - can cause many problems. For a person driven by economic motivation, whose personality includes excessive collecting and hoarding, their life principle is that this or that will be good for something someday. Then, they usually never make use of that particular thing; it only hinders them in getting their work done - it's incredibly difficult to work in clutter.
2. S: Seiton (Set in Order) – A Place for Everything
Once only the necessary items remain, it's time for logical organization. The goal is the "30-second rule": you should be able to find anything within 30 seconds and put it back in the same amount of time. The system should be self-explanatory.
The tools for this are elements of visual management:
Shadow Boards: We paint the outlines of tools on their storage board. A single glance shows what's missing and where it belongs.
Labeling: Every shelf, drawer, and container should be clearly labeled with large letters. If you don't spend 5 minutes on labeling, you'll have to waste 5 minutes every time you search for a fastener or a part.
Floor Markings: Paint outlines for the locations of pallets, carts, and waste bins. Nothing will be in the way anymore. Anyone who has been in a factory now knows why the location of everything is painted on the floor.
Color Codes: Use colors to mark scrap, semi-finished, and finished products. It's fast, simple, and reduces errors. I would also add to this to use transparent packaging; think of fasteners, for example. In our engineering office, it used to be a common case that when buying a large box of fasteners, the items were in paper bags (and of course, there wasn't just one bag in the box, but say 40-50 different ones). And even though it was written on the paper bag with a pen what was inside, you might remember what's in which bag for up to 5-10 bags, but with 50, the situation is completely chaotic. It's much simpler and faster if things are in plastic bags or some kind of storage box, so you can see inside the packaging. (And then come the environmentalists, saying paper is eco-friendly. Sure, it would be, if the paper wasn't reinforced with plastic.)
The frequency of use is the deciding factor: what you need daily should be at hand. What's needed rarely can go further back. The workflow dictates the logic.
3. S: Seiso (Shine) – More Than Just Vacuuming
This is the point most people misunderstand. Seiso is not the janitor's job. Here, cleaning is the employee's responsibility and, at the same time, an important inspection process.
Think about it: on a clean machine, an oil leak, a loose bolt, or a crack is immediately visible. Dirt hides problems, while cleanliness makes them visible. Seiso is therefore a form of mini-maintenance. At the end of a shift, the machine operator spends 5-10 minutes cleaning their machine and its surroundings. This isn't wasted time; it's an investment in prevention. A problem noticed in time can save hundreds of thousands and days of downtime. Not to mention reducing the cognitive load on people. Everyone works much slower in dirt, filth, and disarray because their attention is burdened. It's no coincidence that we feel better in a clean and orderly environment.
You have order and cleanliness. But how do we ensure this isn't just a one-time state but the reality of everyday life? This is where the soul of the system comes in.
4. S: Seiketsu (Standardize) – Don't Let It Be Just a Flare-up
This is the glue that holds the first three steps together. Without standardization, the whole thing will be forgotten in a few weeks. The goal is to make the clean and orderly state permanent and visual.
The practical tools for this are:
5S Checklists (Audits): A simple, point-based list that someone goes through weekly. The score should be posted on a board for everyone to see. The spirit of competition and visual feedback can work wonders. We can only check what we write down because, unfortunately, our brain can play tricks on us.
Photographic Standards: Take a photo of the perfect state ("target condition") and put it on the wall. No more arguments about what "order" means; the picture shows it.
Areas of Responsibility: It should be clear who owns the area and what their role is in maintaining order.
Standardization provides the framework to ensure that order is not incidental but the default state of the system.
5. S: Shitsuke (Sustain/Discipline) – When It's in Your Blood
This is the most difficult step: building the culture. It's when 5S is no longer an external mandate but an internal need. When you no longer have to tell a colleague to put the drill back in its place because it's the natural thing to do. This is called discipline, but it's really about self-discipline and habit.
This cannot be achieved by command. It is the result of consistency, continuous reinforcement, and leadership by example. If the CEO also regularly walks through the workshop, notices, and acknowledges the order (this is called a Gemba Walk), it's worth more than a thousand emails. Shitsuke is when 5S is no longer a project but part of the "this is how we work" culture.
Let's remember that nagging others doesn't lead to good results, as it can trigger reactance (defiance) in the colleague, similar to when a parent tells their child for the 265th time to put on a hat because it's cold outside and they'll catch a cold without it. And in such cases, that certain "I won't do it just because you said so" mindset kicks in.
Why Is This Worth It for You? The Hard Benefits
This is all well and good, but what's the payoff? Results that can be measured in money and efficiency:
Greater Efficiency: Less time is spent searching, leading to shorter turnaround times.
Better Safety: An orderly area has fewer accident hazards.
Superior Quality: Cleanliness reduces the chance of contamination, and early detection of defects (Seiso) prevents the production of scrap.
Less Machine Downtime: The lifespan of machines increases, and the number of unplanned downtimes decreases due to early fault detection.
Improved Employee Morale: In a clean, organized environment, frustration and stress decrease, and workplace pride increases.
The Bottom Line and the Pitfalls
5S is the foundation of Lean management. If this foundation is unstable, it's pointless to try more complex systems. It's like building on a swamp.
The most common mistakes to avoid:
Thinking it's just cleaning. No. It's a system.
Lack of leadership by example. If the boss doesn't care, the employees won't either.
"We did it once, we're done." Wrong. It's a continuous cycle.
Overcomplicating it. Start with a pilot area. Showcase success and then move forward.
There's no magic here. Just logic, consistency, and common sense.