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Guest post by: Devang Jhaveri Become an Author

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In early 1980s good house keeping become a pertinent issue in Japanese Industries, as companies realised its powerful contribution to productivity and quality improvement. The '5S' principle pioneered by Toyota Motors focuses upon creating a primer quality of workplace where in quality can take firm roots. '5S' is a systematic approach to good housekeeping leading to a cleaner, safer and better work place, which is fundamental to productivity and quality. What is a 5"s" movement basically? It is a determination to organise work place, to keep it neat to maintain standardise conditions & to maintain discipline that is needed to do a good job.

Significance of the word 5"S" :-

5s Comprises 5 Japanese Words That Start From "S"

1. Seiri - sorting out unnecessary around you.

2. Seiton - set in a way that gives quick retrivability.

3. Seiso - Daily cleaning & inspection of work place to keep things ready to use.

4. Seiketsu - Serene atmosphere / sanitising / implementing visual concepts.

5. Shitsuke - Integration of the self-discipline in the work place.

5"S" Lean - Management Barometer

Although the 5 S lean can be most effective in improving the management of any factory, there are also a number of other activities being promoted to forge better work teams and to improve working conditions. Yet if you can do the 5S you can also implement the other systems with no problems and to good effect.the reason for this is that the 5S do not require a lot of fancy managerial staff. Instead they depend on workers to implement them and to self manage for maximum effect. The 5S cannot succeed unless every one is on board and thinking about it. But if they are the other systems are already half implemented. So if you can do the 5S you can implement other systems easily.

What is management for? Very simply, it is devise easy to follow procedures, to make sure that everything is operating right, to get everyone involved in making and maintaining improvements, to improve the level of operations, and, hence, to improve the quality assurance level. Seen this way it should be clear that it is possible to study management basics with 5 S.

The 5S are the easiest principles there are to understand. They lend themselves to total participation. There are no gains unless the 5S are implemented but the gains that are achieved from 5S implementation are clear for everyone to see. In fact the 5S are the prototype total participation program. Thus it has been said that the 5S are a barometer telling you how well company is managed and a lodestone telling you how total worker participation is.

Changing both thinking and behavior

Recently both the school and the home have abandoned their responsibilities in Japan. Instead people now learn the basis of all social Behavior at the work place with on the job training. The basis for this attitude is to treat all things carefully. The more careful and attentive some one is about inspecting the machinery at the factory, the more likely he or she is to care for the equipment and use it carefully. This is when people are at their best, when they can see the situation clearly, and when they are concerned for their fellow workers and try to do a better job. This is first step to a pure heart.

When people have this experience in their work, when they come together with their fellow workers and develop the spirit of working together, this also changes their attitude, their manner of thinking, and the way they act. So the factory is not simply a place for making things. It is also a place for making people better.

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