Definition
The 5-S practice is a technique used to establish
and maintain quality environment in an
organization. The name stands for five Japanese
words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and
shitsuke[1]. They mean organization, neatness,
cleaning, standardization and discipline
respectively. For the sake of consistency, an
attempt has been made to find the appropriate “S” terms in the English language
The original concept was developed by
Osada in the early 1980s. It has been widely
practised in many Japanese firms, both at
home and abroad. In 1993, as the Quality
Expert to the Malaysian Government, Samuel
Ho was requested by the Director General of
the Standards and Industrial Research Institute
of Malaysia (SIRIM) to act as the 5-S
Champion and promote the 5-S concept to
the Malaysian industries. As part of the staff
training, he has developed a 5-S Audit Checklist,
and conducted in-house 5-S audits. Many
firms have started using the 5-S since then. In
1994, similar successes have been recorded in
Hong Kong through the partnership with the
Hong Kong Government Industry Department.
The technique has been practised in Japan
for a long time. Most Japanese 5-S practitioners
consider the 5-S useful not just for
improving their physical environment but for
improving their thinking processes as well.
Apparently, the 5-S can help in all strata of
life. Many of the everyday probles could be
solved through adoption of this practice.
Surprisingly, this powerful quality tool has
been a secret to the West. The western world
has just recently recognized the significance of
the 5-S practice although there are indications
that some companies have included some
aspects of the 5-S in their routines without
being aware of its existence as a formalized
technique.
There are many examples of successful
implementation of some principles of the 5-S,
especially in the service sector organizations,
such as fast-food restaurants, supermarkets,
hotels, libraries, and leisure centres. The
difference between the Japanese and western
approach lies mostly in the degree of employee
involvement.
By formalizing the technique,
the Japanese established the framework which
enabled them successfully to convey the
message across the organization, achieve total participation, and systematically implement
the practice. The 5-S has become the way of
doing businesses, not only to impress the
customers but to establish effective quality
processes as prerequisites for good products
and services
Typical examples of the 5-S activities are: “throwing away rubbish”, “30-second
retrieval of a document”, “individual cleaning
responsibility”, “transparency of storage” and “do 5-S daily” respectively. These are simple,
self-explanatory activities which everyone
should be doing in order to have a total quality
environment at their workplace. There is
nothing new about these activities but, in
general, people have not been aware of their
significance until now, so there is ample scope
for improvement.
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0968-4875
