The Great Library of Alexandria
The 5S Methodology
A Free Beginner’s Guide for Understanding and Applying the 5S Maintenance Procedures
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Doctrina Nam Laurus
(Learning for Success)
Go to the Home and Introducing the 5S Methodology pages for links to other sites with free introductory material for 5S.
Introducing the 5S Methodology - 3
How did 5S develop?
The Beginning
The evolution of some of the world’s best practices and standards in the manufacturing industry were started in Japan at the turn of the 20th century by Sakichi Toyoda the founder of the Toyota textile factory with looms that stopped when a thread broke.
Autonomation
Sakichi’s response to this problem was to have one of his workers watch the loom
where the thread tended to break, so that firstly, the break could be fixed immediately
to reduce down time and secondly, to identify what was causing the break so it could
be fixed permanently. This is considered by many to be the beginning of Autonomation,
i.e. intelligent automation or automation with a human touch -
Just-In-Time (JIT)
Toyota is considered to have started the JIT methodology in 1934 when the company moved from textiles to vehicle manufacturing. Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi’s son and the founder of Toyota cars, managed the engine casting works where there were numerous problems with the manufacturing process and quality.
Kaizen
In 1936, when Toyota won its first truck contract with the Japanese government the
processes hit new problems. The on-
Toyota Production System (TPS)
During the post Second World War years a delegation from Toyota lead by Taiichi Ohno, an engineer, visited the United States to study its commercial enterprises. They visited several Ford Motor Company plants because Ford was an industry leader at the time. The Toyota delegation was unimpressed with the ineffective methods, the large amounts of inventory and the uneven amounts of work being performed in various departments within the factory.
However, on their visit to Piggly Wiggly, an American supermarket, the delegation
was inspired by how the supermarket only reordered and restocked goods once they’d
been bought by customers. They were particularly impressed with a simple idea used
in an automatic drink re-
Taiichi Ohno used the lessons of the United States visit and built on the already existing internal schools of thought and spread their breadth and use into what has now become the Toyota Production System (TPS). Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo and Eiji Toyoda developed the system between 1948 and 1975. TPS included the expansion of the JIT methodology, which was the precursor to the more generic Lean Manufacturing.
Lean Manufacturing
The main goals of the TPS are to:
- Design out overburden
- Eliminate inconsistency
- Eliminate waste
Through the use of TPS Toyota:
- Reduced lead times
- Reduced costs
- Reduced stock holdings
- Improved quality
This enabled Toyota to become one of the ten largest companies in the world. It is currently as profitable as all the other car companies combined and became the largest car manufacturer in 2007.
The Toyota Production System has been compared to squeezing water from a dry towel. What this means is that it is a system for thorough waste elimination. Here, waste refers to anything which does not advance the process, everything that does not increase added value.
5S
5S was a natural evolution of the key methodologies briefly discussed above. It was developed within TPS and is an important element of Lean Manufacturing.
The 5S methodology as a total concept started to become prominent in industry outside Japan during the 1980s.
The cornerstone philosophy of 5S is that untidy, cluttered work areas are not productive.
As well as the physical implications of junk getting in everybody's way and dirt compromising quality, we are all are happier in a clean and tidy environment and hence more inclined to work harder and with due care and attention.
