3855

Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 8(7): 3855-3859, 2012

ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Case Report: Experience of 5S Implementation
1
Shahryar Sorooshian, 2Meysam Salimi, 1Shanthi Bavani, 3Hasti Aminattaheri
1
Business School. Taylor’s University, Malaysia
2
Graduate School of Management, Management and Science University, Malaysia
3
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Putra Malaysia

ABSTRACT

One of the major challenges of business leadership in this millennium is to manage the quality of the work
environment. 5S is known as an extremely effective technique to manage the work environment quality. In this
study, the experience of implementing a 5S program involving the real case practice is presented, specifically
the influence of 5S on some basic work environment problems and the compensation power on the choice of
implementation of 5S.

Key words: 5S, TQM, implementation, Experience, Report.

Introduction

TQM (Total Quality Management) is an approach in management that began in the 1950s and its popularity
has been growing since 1980s (Wong et al., 2010). Total Quality amounts to the attitude and the culture and
structure of an organization that intends to provide customers with services or products that satisfy their needs.
The culture needs quality in every aspect of the operation of the company with the processes conducted in the
right manner the first time and waste and defects are eradicated from the operations. TQM is an approach
through which the employees and the management can be involved in the constant enhancement of the
manufacturing of products and services. It is a mixture of quality and management tools targeting the increasing
business and decreasing losses owing to wasteful practices (Andersen et al., 2004).
5S is one of the TQM tools and was firstly introduced to companies in Japan in the early 1980s. Now,
many agencies in the Public Service and Private Service practice 5S fact. 5S is a methodology or tool through
which the management can create an environment where quality work is comfortable, clean and safe in the
organization and it can ensure the compliance to standards and will further foster continuous improvement
(Okhovat, 2007). 5S management ensures the efficiency and effectiveness to achieve the characteristics of
quality in the workplace as follows:
i. The work environment is clean, tidy and safe
ii. storage and document management are more effective
To answer: “What is 5S?” We review Akhovat’s writing (2007) to present each S of 5S, as follows:

Seiri: Sort:

Sorting items which are not necessary and segregating and disposing of goods that are not needed at work
systematically are considered here. The sort of work that needs goods and is not required from the basket of
goods in the workplace. Separation process is helpful in determining the necessary materials at the present or the
future and should be stored in a designated storage area. Unnecessary items will be disposed. The benefits are
 Saving space
 Stock control and efficient products
 Searching time is fast
 Safer Workplace
 More comfortable working environment
 Easily detect the place / equipment / material damage early

Seiton: Set in Order:

Neatness: This means preparing the necessary items neatly and systematically so that they can easily be
taken and returned in the original place after use. It includes preparing and storing neatly, easily collected and

Corresponding Author: Shahryar Sorooshian, Business School. Taylor’s University, Malaysia

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2178780

stored back into place. Organizing and labeling was done after all the items that do not have to be separated. The
composition of goods should be carried by the same group. The main objective is to develop economical use of
space and the storage of goods is neat and orderly, and facilitates the process of locating and obtaining goods in
the future. Some examples can be based on the application and give benefit to worker:
 The process works faster
 Errors and mistakes will be avoided
 Loss rate lower equipment
 The working environment will be more convenient
 Educating employees positive discipline
 Among employees to generate creative ideas
 Higher employee moral

Seiso: Shine:

Cleaning: Clean and inspect the work in details so that no dust or dirt is on the floor, equipments and the
working environment. The purpose of sweeping is to remove dust or dirt that sticks on the floor, the machine at
work or goods that have been sorted and arranged. A checklist should be placed to guide the employees on what
to do in the future in this activity. Fundamental points, equipment, areas should be swept and cleaned at all
times with an effective maintenance schedule. Some examples are based on application which can benefit the
worker includes:
 Low-cost equipment failure
 Improved product quality
 The work environment is more comfortable and cheerful
 Workers continue to produce creative ideas
 High employee morale
 Safety at work

Seiketsu: Standardize:

Uniformity: To establish standards of the best practice in the workplace and to ensure that the standards are
complied and to guarantee that the workplace is clean and tidy at all times. Examples of storage of equipment
and documents that is clear. Uniforms can only be done after sorting the activities, collated, and the sweeping
was completed. Maintaining a clean uniform or work at home is important so that every effort is made in the
three previous activities is not in vain. Activities conducted by the nature of each worker would instill a sense of
belonging and love for cleanliness in the workplace.
The user is required to be followed by employees to guarantee the required quality and standards been
reached. Some examples based on application and benefits to worker include:
 Low maintenance costs
 Low overhead costs
 Increased process efficiency
 Increased production quantities
 Educating employees positive discipline
 Workers continue to generate creative ideas
 Increasing workers' skills
 Employee loyalty to the organization
 Enhancing the image of the organization

Shitsuke: Sustain:

Always Practice (Shitsuke): Train employees disciplined for practicing 5S system continuously so that the
habits and culture within the organization will include
 Low production costs
 Increased labor productivity
 Quality products and services
 Get a Certificate of increased 5S
 Zero Accidents at work

Benefits:- Workers will be more creative and innovative

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2178780

- Increasing workers' skills

This paper presents the results and findings obtained from the observation of the environment at Milad
Company on March 2012. Milad Company is a small-sized company fully owned by the privet sector, with 15
employees. This company works in marketing service and its main activity is to act as a business consultant
industry. Data analysis and presentation of the findings are based on the problem statement that was formed and
reported in the next chapter.
Virtually, every week staff of the company goes to the compactor room or file room to find the “approval
letter of undertaking” and “case consulting form” because most vendors need to claim to the company.
Sometimes, they do not have enough data and they might loss documents. The problem will happen every day
such as missing the letter of undertaking, vendors need to check any other chargers and the researcher needs to
amend and then fax back. That is the problem that researcher faces; the effective using of 5S for white paper in
file room. File rooms is the place that the problem is focused and can be solved through5S method. The facility
on that place does not have enough space and the environment is very crowded with a lot of boxes, files and
other similar office equipments. The arrangement of the situation is extremely messy. For the management and
the staff of the company, it is very difficult to locate the documents that need to be found. Now, the department
has changed form level 2 to level 1. After consulting with experts, the management of the company realized that
5S is a technique which can help them to solve this problem and they decided to experience 5S in their
company. The Authors of this paper also decided to report this experience and the findings of the effects of 5S.

Methods:

Methodology is a defining element to make sure that the obtained results are highly reliable. Therefore, the
collection of data and it analysis should be in line with the objectives of the study (Creswell, 2009). This will
result in a reduction of the inaccurate and an excessive amount of information.
Research design also discusses the proposed design for tasks such as sample selection and size and also
instrumentation or data sources. In the purpose of this study, the research design that has been used was
descriptive and qualitative data. Descriptive research is conducted to discover and determine the characteristics
of a population or phenomena (Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 2000).
The research design is a procedure of analytical steps of the network through informal processes
scientifically. Overall, the study design allows the researchers to conduct studies and provide the researcher with
the opportunity to discover the appropriate method to carry out the research. Through the design, the researcher
will determine how the variables are controlled.
The design for this research was carefully organized in order to aid the researchers to collect the data
required for such study. Because the study is a research field whose purpose is to understand the improvements
of white paper in files room, the research design was chosen in the form of observation research.
The observation method was selected since its reliability is high and also it is a cost efficient process.
Scientific observation is a process of observing and recording the behavioral patterns among the people,
occurrences and objects without asking questions or communicating with them (Frankfort-Nachmias and
Nachmias, 2000). Applied research is carried out in cases that the decisions are to be made on the particular
real-life problems or to decide upon a specific course of action of policy (Davis and Cosenza, 2000). In this
research, applied research method will be employed to get information about the improvement of the white
paper in file’s room at TL Offshore.
As in 5S practices it is generally known; the File Room is a protected environment and is exclusively
prepared for archiving, storing and shredding of the documents. Providing a personal first class service with
collection and retrieval are among the other uses of the file room. The time of the staff can be saved by having
an effective and organized method of storing the files with our office storage solution. That can hold more
documents due to increasing the legislation through our secure document archiving services.
Also the white paper is in 5S practices known as it is business benefits documentation that initiates an issue
confronted by those who read it and consequently, justifies why a special method for solving the problem is
proffered. IT usually proposes am answer to a problem; however, it can also introduce a novel issue and how to
conduct a technical task. Among the significant breadth of content available to IT professional, vendor white
paper are more frequently read than reviews, analyst reports, product literature, web site, articles or case studies.
In this paper, all the data are original and were collected by the researcher. The data is collected mainly
from the feedback of the observations. A great range of different information about the behaviour of objects and
people can be observed. The greatest advantage of the observations studies over survey is the fact that the data
will not be distorted, inaccurate and there will be no response bias mainly due to the memory error, social
desirability and so forth. Figure 1 shows one of documents for implementation comparison of 5S implantation.
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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(7): 3855
5-3859, 2012

Before After

Fig. 1: 5S Implementatio
on experience

Results:

This organization
o emmbraced the iddea of 5S andd without any complaints or objections haas employed thhis
system evversince. Neveertheless, num merous grave iissues have been b observedd while the sttudy was beinng
conducted.. Thus, as outliined below, thee reports to thee company mannagers highlighhts the need of 5S.
 Fiile are not arraanged in order, are not easily accessible andd are not stored in a systematic manner
 Thhere is no plan n or layout of floor
fl plan file too be displayed.
 Thhe Movement file is not reccorded whether the file uses the docket orr file. Normallly the file is nnot
reorganized in the originaal place after use.
u
Speciffically, the commparison of 5S S, prior and afteer the implemeentation showss that each con ncept of 5S helpps
to resolve the problem and the lack that the comppany had faceed before. Thee following linnes presents thhe
problems there
t were reso olved as a resullt of the 5S conncepts implemeentation:
1. Soort (Seiri) – Taake out unnecessary items & dispose
 A lot of unnecesssary things weere at the workkplace
 Unnecessary
U items were dispoosed, but no rigght away.
2. Seet in Order (Seeiton) – Arrangge necessary iteems in good orrder for use.
 Em mployees oftenn spent time loooking for neceessary things.
 Necessary
N thinggs were arrangeed but not in syystematic orderr (not easy to reetrieve and usee
3. Shhine (Seiso) – Clean your woorkplace complletely
 Workplace
W as well
w as the mach hines is dirty annd untidy. Manny things weree scattered arouund.
 Workplace
W and machines
m weree partially cleanned (Center annd surface onlyy)
4. Sttandardize (Seiiketsu) – Mainntain high standdard of housekeeeping.
 No N attention waas given to keep p workplace neeat and tidy
 Workplace
W was tidy but not coompletely cleann.
5. Suustain (Shitsukke) – Do thingss simultaneouslly without beinng told or orderred.
 No N work disciplline. People did d what they likke.
 Peeople followedd rules, but justt to start work on o time, without enough prepparation for thee work.
5S sollved all mentiooned problemss. Generally sppeaking, manaagement of thee working enviironment can be b
more unifo orm and system matic when praactice 5S. 5S ppractices can heelp companies to plan and im mplement efforrts
in order to create a workp place environmment that is connducive to imprroving the quaality of servicess.
Severaal critical succcess factors of 5S implemeentation have been b observedd while condu ucting this studdy
therefore; the
t researcher proposes the following
fo recommmendations:
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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(7): 3855-3859, 2012

1. To make the 5S practices more influential the top management are required to fully support this
activity all through the company. However, in the company under study, it was evident that the top management
was not fully embracing the 5S practices and their reason was mentioned as the amount of the time and money
that would be required to implement the proposed activities in the5S. In order to make the top management
aware of the effectiveness of the 5S, they have to be shown the performance of product quality of this approach.
2. The organization should institute a system of benchmarking with other companies which are successful
and make reference on a regular basis with the member of the Quality Team which will provide assistance to the
companies in terms of further comprehending its vision and mission.
3. The involvement of all employees in the all departments in the program 5S. All staff should understand
the five good reasons 5S program should be practiced at the workplace as it will result in a clean workplace with
higher productivity, having a high quality, reducing cost, to ensure timely delivery and consequently, it is a safe
workplace.
Also from this experience of 5s implementation, it was found that:
1. 5S concept is easily understood by everyone because this only requires knowledge of the conventional
discipline and high commitment. This practice can be implemented at all levels.
2. 5S will foster teamwork, discipline and will increase the sense of responsibility and compassion for
company.
3. 5S will create productive work environments and clean and secure the delivery system towards a
world-class.
4. Ongoing commitment from management and involvement are the cornerstone of all citizens for the
successful implementation of 5S practices.
5. 5S is an ongoing need to maintain excellent service delivery performance.
6. Assessment of Internal Audit will normally move the organization to continually repair the quality and
effectiveness of services delivered to customers. Activities are planned and ongoing audit to help people to be
prepared to face the real 5S audits by the MPC to obtain and maintain certification of 5S.

Conclusion:
This paper intends to presents the experience of 5S implementation; specifically, the purpose of the study is
to closely examine the effects of implementing 5S. The limitations of this study are in terms of its scope as this
study is related only to one organization.
Some studies focus on the planning or implementation process, some see the issue from the organizational
managers (or organization) perspective and some others see it from employees’ perspectives. Some articles also
talk about the general issue and some others talk about the short-term and long-term consequences of
implementing such programs. The conclusion on such topics needs a very deep review of the related literature as
well as enough theoretical and practical experience about the topic. This paper is just a simple representation of
basic information gathering about the concept of 5S; In addition, in order to further understand the issues better,
one case were brought, summarized, and discussed.

Acknowledgement

Authors thank top managers of Milad Company because of their helpful support.

References

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