Put simply, 5S is method of creating, maintaining and improving a clean and orderly workplace that exposes waste and errors.  5S helps identify unplanned levels of inventory either as tools, materials, work in progress or finished goods.  Often we can use simple visual processes to help us identify these problems quickly through systems that provide instruction, information and feedback on how well the operational process is working.  5S can be applied to any physical process in the factory and in the office.

5S is much more than just “housekeeping”.  Housekeeping and an organised workplace are the results of 5S, but the real purpose of 5S is to make problems more evident more quickly.

5S is a great place to start on our Lean initiative because it promotes an action oriented approach to change and allows people at all levels in the business to get involved and provide input with improving their workplace.

Here are some suggestions for implementing 5S:

Create a sense of urgency around our 5S activities. Let’s understand we are implementing 5S in our business and why we need to do this now and why we shouldn’t leave it for 12 months.  If 5S does not improve our operation and fix people’s frustrations why would we use it.

Have the senior management team develop a vision for how our business will be different once 5S has been implemented across the organisation.  Take the time to put some thought into how it will affect our Value Streams and the expected operational benefits that will result.

Implement in a pilot area first and then develop and execute the rollout plan for the rest of the organisation.  The rollout plan should include regular and achievable milestones and targets that are visible and unambiguous.  Each area should have visual 5S measures displayed in the work area, and celebrate the achievement of their targets at least every few months.

Make sure 5S is seen in the context of the whole Lean initiative and not as a stand alone tool, and make sure people know why we are doing 5S.

Make sure that our 5S activities are “successful”.  That means making sure that people actually solve some of their problems with the application of 5S.  Think about ways to set people up for success.

Don’t just implement 5S because it is easy - implement 5S to engage people in improving the flow of work and eliminating waste.  If you cannot clearly see how 5S is going to improve the operation, chose another tool that will drive real improvement first.

Plan for training and coaching of staff - we should not expect people to understand 5S without relevant training.  Think about ways to standardise the 5S training so that everyone receives the same information.  The training can be structured into the kaizen blitz’s that are planned for each area.

Insist that management lead by example by getting involved with 5S activities on the floor and implementing 5S in their own work areas.  Every time a manager condones or ignores a 5S issue that should be addressed we are eroding the whole program because it shows that we are not serious.  What is not said is often more powerful that what is said.  Build 5S reviews into management Gemba walks.

Build 5S standard work into our processes and daily activities at all levels in the business.  Don’t allow 5S to be something that we do only when we have spare time, or on a Friday afternoon.  We don’t approach Health and Safety this way.

Through the involvement of the team members in the work area, clearly define the expected 5S standards in all work areas and use visual standards to display and monitor these expectations.

Take the time to have the team members visit good examples of 5S in other parts of your organisation or outside the company.

Use structured problem solving techniques with the teams to solve specific 5S issues.  Use of a standard process will accelerate the uptake of the tools as people get more practice with the techniques.

Ensure that all work instructions reflect the 5S requirements for all activities and tasks, particularly for putting away materials, tools and product.

Take every opportunity to emphasise 5S by including it in all job descriptions and every meeting.  If we apply the same principles to the implementation of 5S as we have to Health and Safety then we are more likely to succeed.

Build 5S expectations into our performance measures, but ensure that audits and measures are designed to help people understand why we a doing 5S.  Sustainable results will not be realised if people are just finding ways to improve audit scores without fully understanding the real objectives of 5S.

Have the Leadership Team review progress on a regular basis and continue to set new targets.  As the new behaviours become habits, develop ways to continuously improve the 5S culture.  Consider rewarding and recognising teams for their level of improvement or innovative solutions to 5S issues.

Be innovative about how 5S can be applied to other processes in other parts of the organisation.  Every organisational process will benefit from 5S thinking.

Having been involved with helping people in organisations implement Lean over a period of 10 years, I have spent a lot of time talking about the 5 Principles of Lean which were popularised by Womack and Jones in their book “Lean Thinking”. I have summarised the 5 principles here.

Value
Ensure we understand “value” from the customer’s perspective and be careful to take the time to actually explore this with our customers, so that we do not fall into the trap of making inaccurate assumptions.

Value Stream
Identify the process steps that create the value identified in the first principle.  It is here that we start to recognise waste or non value added steps in our process.  This principle is achieved using a process known as Value Stream Mapping which is a method used to understand and record all material and information flow required to bring our product or service to the customer.

Flow
This principle uses a variety of continuous improvement tools and techniques to eliminate anything in the process that results in waste and delays.  This principle is about working towards a process that delivers “value” with the most effective use of our resources.

Pull
Once we have improved the way our processes create value and shortened the lead time of those processes, we are then in a position to link our process more closely to actual customer demand.  The objective here is to get a close as we can to producing to demand with little or no inventory in our systems.

Perfection
This principle is about the continuing striving for the perfect process by continually removing successive layers of waste as they are uncovered.

Lately I have had a question in the back of my mind about how well these 5 principles really help people understand how to best adapt the Toyota Production System (TPS) for their own organisations.

The Womack and Jones 5 principles are valuable in that they provide a structure for implementing Lean which starts by ensuring our processes are improved in line with creating the most value for our customers, and therefore providing a profitable future for our company.

But how do we explain what needs to be done to ensure that Lean will be a success, and why is it that so many companies simply end up mimicking Toyota and never manage to “internalise” Lean into their culture?  Why is it that companies usually focus only on the Lean tools, rather than on the thinking that is required to correctly deploy the tools?  Why is it so few companies achieve sustainable results by permanently transforming their organisations using Lean?  Could it be that Womack and Jones’ 5 principles are too much of a simplification?

During my quest to find better ways to help people understand how to be successful with Lean, I have been reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino.  They open their book with a chapter that sets out their 5 principles of Lean.  Based on the 4 rules by Steven Spears and H. Kent Brown the 5 principles offer another level of insight into the thinking required in our organisations to ensure success with Lean.  The Flinchbaugh and Carlino 5 principles are:

1. Directly observe work as activities, connections, and flows. The language of Lean will be found if we look for ways to structure, operate and improve our activities, connections and flows.  Every product, material and piece of information should flow through simple and specific pathways.  Understanding our current reality will require deep observation and a framework to “digest” and “expose” opportunities.  Value Stream Mapping can be a useful method to better understand our activities, connections and flows.

2. Systematic waste elimination. Often we hear people say that the purpose of Lean is to eliminate waste, however the real goal of Lean is to realise our true profit potential.  So waste elimination is an enabler for Lean and if we are to be successful with Lean we will need to be systematic in our approach to waste elimination.  This will require a good understanding of waste (and value) from the customer’s perspective and then we will need to be relentlessly pursuing systematic waste elimination on a daily basis.  The 7 wastes will be useful, however our focus on waste is not complete unless our processes and practices systematically address waste on a daily basis.

So far, Flinchbauer and Carlino have presented similar thinking to Womack and Jones.  However, the next principle cuts to the heart of the Lean philisophy and is probably where there is the biggest disconnect between current practice and the true intent of Lean.

3. Establish high agreement of the “what” and the “how”. Tools such as 5S and Visual Workplace are designed fundamentally to achieve the principle of high agreement for  the “what” and  the “how”.  Achieving high agreement of the “what” is relatively straight forward as we develop and set goals and objectives, whereas achieving high agreement of the “how” is more difficult.  Having agreement about the standard way of executing a process is the starting point for all continuous improvement.  If we do not have a standard, how can we improve on it?  Standardisation is a continuous process of reaching a deeper and more detailed level of refinement.  Standards will usually be communicated visually, so that we can walk into any process and immediately determine whether the process is operating normally or abnormally.

4. Systematic (and Systemic) problem solving. For this we need an environment where we see every problem as a way to move closer to the ideal state. and any gap between current reality and ideal is seen as a “problem”.  Creating an environment where problems are seen as good opportunities for  experimentation and improvement is easier said than done.  Our traditional culture is one where we see it as a weakness to admit to a problem or make a mistake.  Also people are often rewarded for solving a major problem, when we should be rewarding people for ensuring that the problem is prevented through systemic continuous improvement.

Decision making and problem solving should be pushed to the lowest possible level because this is where it is most likely that we will find the “right” answers.  However, this requires rules and high agreement for the problem solving process and boundaries for our problem solving activities.  This principle has a big overlap with the principle of achieving high agreement.

5 Create a learning organisation. This principle relies heavily on principle number 4, and using  agreed problem solving processes at all levels in the business to work on the systems that should be  preventing problems from happening.  We need to be spending more time reflecting on how the organisation works, thinks and improves and get into the habit of doing this daily.  This reflection should be happening at all levels in the organisation. The more points of reflection we can create the faster, deeper and more sustainable our transformation will be.

Leaders must be learners and teachers, open to changing themselves and involving themselves in the learning and experimentation that results from principles 3 and 4, and setting an example by leading from the front.  Everyone in the organisation can take on a leadership role by becoming change agents.  Everyone is involved with closing the gap between the current reality and the vision or ideal state.  Focusing on how to close the gap is where the leader is learning. Helping others close the gap is where the leader is teaching.

On balance, I think Flinchbauer and Carlino add some further insight into the 5 Principles of Lean and have helped us understand what it takes to internalise some of the Lean fundamentals, in particular the use of  “high agreement” to ensure standardisation and systematic waste elimination and problem solving at all levels of the organisation to help us become a Learning Organisation.

“Lean starts with rules , not tools.”

Jamie Flinchbaugh can be found at www.LeanLearningCenter.com

The Gemba Walk is a powerful way to build standard work into our leadership activities.  It is about getting out of the office and into the process with our people, to help them discover issues and fix them.  It becomes a valuable mechanism for staying in touch with our managers and team leaders, and keeping in touch with the real operational issues in our business.

Why do we need to build Gemba walks into our daily routine?

• We can use the Gemba Walk to reiterate our vision for the organisation and make sure we are doing the “right things - right”.  There is no better way to reinforce our vision than repeated face to face dialogue.

• We can break down the barriers between management and the teams and improve communication channels throughout the operation.  Often, team leaders and team members will be reluctant to raise issues for fear of being “wrong”.

• The Gemba Walk helps us build relationships with our team leaders by getting to know them better and helping them improve their processes.  This is fundamental to improving teamwork and the effectiveness of our teams.

• We can help people discover opportunities for improvement by asking questions and listening to the answers.  In this way we can offer real support, encouragement and praise.

• It becomes a mechanism for “catching” people doing the right things and allows us to recognise people for the good work that they do.  We can use the Gemba Walk to improve morale by actively showing respect for people.

• Our visibility shows that we care about how things are going, and want to support the teams to set targets and improve performance. When we show interest in certain aspects of the operation the teams will usually also take an interest.

How do we do Gemba Walks?

• Make it a daily routine and have a set time. Avoid letting other meetings or issues interfere with this routine if possible.

• Choose your Gemba walk participants carefully.  Have a briefing session before and after the walk to prepare and debrief.

• Ask questions and listen attentively. Avoid the temptation to offer solutions - this is disrespectful to our people because it does not help them solve their own issues for themselves.

• Set the example of how we want our team leaders to behave with their people. We should be encouraging our team leaders to mirror our behaviour with their teams.

• We are looking to increase ownership so be careful that by doing the Gemba Walk we do not erode the ownership.  Use the Gemba Walk as a mechanism to empower people to solve their own problems.  Ultimately we are looking to have teams solving problems of which we are not aware.

• Use the opportunity to reinforce the importance of the appropriate Lean tools such as 7 wastes and VSM.

• Structure your questions so that they draw out ideas for improvement of the process.  It is often useful to have a “standard” set of question to ask.

• Use the Gemba Walk as an opportunity to share what you are learning about the processes.

• It is useful to have a theme for each walk, so that there is a focus eg safety, 5S or performance measurement.

• Maintain a sense of “pace” during the walk.  This not to be seen as just a casual chat.

• Make sure we take care of problems straight away.  There should be a sense of urgency about our improvement activities.

• Take the opportunity to praise people and give people positive feedback where it is due.

• Be careful about being the management police.  This process is about building trust and relationships.

• Look for what disrupts the workflow with a focus on waste between the process steps.

• Use the walk to help identify where mistakes could be made in the process, and encourage people to implement solutions that prevent mistakes.

• Use the walk to identify all waste streams and rework loops, along with ways to reduce these.

• Use the walk to identify whether the metrics being used are effective measures that help highlight causes of problems.

I have a client who is very excited to have achieved 12 months without sustaining a Lost Time Injury (LTI).  This is a record for this particular site and a great achievement.

But does this measure drive the behaviour we  need to achieve long term sustainable continuous improvement in everything we do for our customers?  Sure, having an injury free workplace is something we should be aiming for because it enables us to reliably supply goods and services to our customers.  Additionally, we have a responsibility to our employees to provide a safe working environment, but how should we measure our safety performance?

The number of Lost Time Injuries, often expressed as the number of LTI’s per million hours worked (LTIFR) is a popular measure for safety.  One problem is that this metric is a “lag” indicator that doesn’t necessarily provide a good indication of how our safety performance will track in the future.  Also the longer we go without having an LTI, the more pressure there is to not report an LTI.  In my experience this means that we find ourselves going to great lengths to make sure any injury does not count as an LTI.  Have you ever heard someone say “If we could just get that person back to work quickly on light duties  we could prevent this “becoming” and LTI?”  This is not showing true respect for our employees, and communicates the wrong messages to our workforce.

I once worked for an organisation that had achieved 2 years LTI free, and in doing so had created so much pressure on the employees that no one was prepared to admit they were carrying injuries.  Eventually there was an avalanche of repetitive strain LTI’s that had been “covered” up and remained untreated because nobody wanted to be the one who spoilt the LTI performance measure. The company’s focus on the LTI measure had actually resulted in injuries that were much worse than they might have been had they been reported and treated earlier.

So, what is the answer?

Wherever possible we should be using “lead” indicators that help us identify problem solving opportunities as early as possible in the process.  So for safety, perhaps we should be measuring how many near misses are reported and how quickly corrective actions are implemented to prevent or reduce the risk of their re occurrence.  By focusing our attention on measuring how well we are improving our processes  to prevent near misses from ever happening  we are shifting the emphasis to “prevention” rather than “cure”.  We are also providing a real mechanism for employee involvement that will lead to a more sustainable set of operational outcomes in the longer term.

Lag indicators may sometimes achieve a result faster, but as a general rule for designing any metrics we should always insist on having lead indicators that drive the right behaviour and provide a more sustainable outcome in the long term.