The Japanese 5-S housekeeping program, To increase the production

Although the concept originated in Japan following World War II, the “5-S” program for organizing work areas is currently a popular trend in management. Sometimes referred to as elements, each of the five components of the program begins with the letter “S,” as transliterated from Japanese — thus, the term 5-S. In the U.S., these terms are roughly translated to “S” words in English to maintain the 5-S name. Accordingly, the elements include sort, systemize, shine or sweep, standardize, and sustain. In the U.K., the concept is converted to the 5-C program comprising five comparable components: clear out, configure, clean and check, conformity, and custom and practice.


The 5-S program is frequently combined with precepts of the Lean Manufacturing Initiative. Even when used separately, however, the 5-S (or 5-C) program is said to yield excellent results. Implementation of the program involves introducing each of the five elements in order, which reportedly generates multiple benefits, including product diversification, higher quality, lower costs, reliable deliveries, improved safety, and higher availability rate.

Originally developed as more than a housekeeping program, the concept was initially intended “to improve activities to ensure any company's survival.” Given the structure of the program, however, it has been widely accepted in the U.S. more as a housekeeping model than a company-survival strategy.

Among the five components, the most important are the first two: sort, and systemize or set in order. These two elements are essential to achieving zero defects, cost reduction, safety improvements, and zero accidents. The key principle underlying the success of such measures is that routines maintaining organization and orderliness are essential to a smooth and efficient flow of activities.

The greatest promoters of the 5-S system are safety departments, since the benefits to safety are greatly apparent to safety personnel. To a safety representative having visited hundreds of concrete production plants, an obvious pattern emerges: the more profitable, efficient — and yes, happier — plants always seem to maintain a clean and orderly yard and production area. Conversely, plants with scattered product and waste that clean up only rarely tend not to recognize that orderliness and housekeeping contribute to efficiency and morale. The noncleanup group then faces a cleanup process that becomes a major cost expenditure with no readily visible return on the investment.

The experienced safety representative also notices that the unorganized plants seem to have higher turnover rates and other employee problems. Workers begin to dress carelessly and produce shoddy product in accordance with management expectation. Once the plants have operated in this mode for some time, changing the operation is a major undertaking since more than just cleanup is needed. A common retort to housekeeping recommendations is “I know where everything is so there is no need to reorganize it.” A quick walk around the plant soon proves that old product and machinery cast aside years or decades ago, in fact, are lost forever.


Sort (Seiri, translated as organization):

The first key element requires organizing the workplace by removing all items from the site that are not needed for current production operations. Clearly distinguish required materials from unneeded items and eliminate the latter. Though old equipment, tools and old product may have some future value, storing those materials in a separate area for review in the third phase — ‘shine’ — will facilitate overall productivity.

This material should be removed from the workplace since waste is defined as excess inventory, unnecessary transportation costs for extra parts and inventory requiring extra pallets, large quantities of stocked items that become obsolete over time, extraneous in-process inventory, and related machine breakdowns and wear. Currently unused equipment also poses a daily obstacle to production activities and contributes to the clutter of unneeded materials.

Safety- related improvements include separating old equipment that is commonly not maintained before employees are required to use it. Training employees on the old and unfamiliar machines or requiring maintenance personnel to utilize cast-aside equipment frequently incurs significant hidden costs — greater than the capital investment required for new equipment, if needed. These costs include excess waste product generated from unfamiliar, old, and poorly maintained equipment.

Systemize, or Set in Order (Seiton, translated as tidiness):

The second key element includes arranging only the needed items so that they are easy to use and labeling them so that they are easily found and put away. This element is intended to make the production process easy to understand so that anyone can find what is needed and return the items to their appropriate places.

Shine (Seiso, translated as purity):

‘Shine’ relates to cleanliness and includes sweeping floors, cleaning equipment, and shoveling out unused material or debris on a daily basis. The concept of shine is to save labor by finding ways to prevent dirt, dust and debris from accumulating in the workplace. ‘Shine’ might include, for example, constructing a small hopper under the conveyor belt sweeper to collect debris or deciding what leftover equipment and in-stock inventory need to be categorized, evaluated and discarded, or tagged with a date for use and ultimate disposal (For example: Dispose on 1/2003).

Some plants may paint machine guards a bright color not only to promote safety by denoting a hazard, but also to make them readily visible should one be left off the equipment following maintenance. Color coding tools to clarify departmental use and ownership can also be a useful measure in this category. Striping floors to denote walk areas, electrical panel box areas, and other functional processes can be included as well. Steam cleaning equipment followed by painting also greatly improves the appearance of the work site.

Standardize (Seiketsu, translated as cleanliness):

This element, comprising less activity than the previous components, is intended to generate a maintenance system for the first three. Standardizing tends to follow the long-term implementation of the third phase, becoming the process itself of routinely maintaining ‘shine’. A well-established order of work greatly benefits the safety process.

At this point, the safety director has a golden opportunity to conduct a job-safety analysis (JSA) followed by the development of a safe operating procedure (SOP) for each job in the plant. How convenient a listing of each job task and its associated hazards would be when training new employees. The JSA can identify lockout-tagout and confined space entry problems, for example, that the SOP can take into account for standardized training. The development of JSAs and SOPs also contributes to the implementation of the fifth element of the program.

Sustain (Shitsuke, translated as discipline):

This is the discipline needed to make a habit of maintaining procedures. The cost and exertion required to establish a clean workplace are wasted if efforts are short lived. Although this element is the most difficult to measure, without this component, the other measures will not last. This is where an effectively designed safety inspection process can be very beneficial — provided it is not used as a whipping tool, which can defeat the 5-S program.


A self-enforced inspection process can be very effective. The implementation of the program might be enhanced by determining future dates on which the process will be repeatedly reinforced through additional training or other enhancement tools. Perhaps, the use of a simple definition board, or reiteration of principles in safety meetings for reinforcement, or repetition of the training process described in the following paragraph would also aid in the sustainability of the program.

The complete program can be implemented in a single workplace or in an entire plant. Obviously, dividing the process into manageable segments — implementing the process in one work area at a time, while moving through the whole plant and yard — is sometimes the more effective method for implementation. In applying the concepts of the program, one training tool commonly used is to have employees first think of one item they could get rid of, followed by identifying one item they could relocate to use more efficiently. These initial steps are followed by thinking of one item or area that would benefit from cleaning; and, one routine that could be established for eliminating, relocating, or cleaning items in the work area. Finally, the fifth element includes having employees think of some conditions to promote carrying out this routine.

If implemented correctly, 5-S will facilitate more effective communication, reduce environmental risk, improve product quality, identify safety hazards, and change employee attitudes from a self-defensive position to a team approach. Unfortunately, implementation can be a major task for plants that need it most. As a rule, the more efficient and neater operations are first to implement the program, perhaps because they have already experienced the benefits of an orderly workplace.