Hi all,

currently working out in Bastion and the section Im running is in a bit of a sorry state and badly needs revamping.

Ive been speaking to my Boss who has told me to look up this continuous improvement 5S thing ??

Ive been looking round the net and cant find much info so far so was wondering if anyone on here had any experience on it??

cheers

Steve

Do you mean 6 Sigma?

Some Info

worth a read
Lean Thinking

6 Sigma is different, 5 s is about waste

there is a bit of crossover with Lean 6Sigma stuff

As with all of these things good principles behind it though normally applied by massive cocks hence seen as fad/fashion

miekwsmith……… just found that first article thanks very much !!

Think it’s a Japanese concept.

Something like, sort, shine etc etc

We tried it at work for a while. You tidy away items based on how often they are used. The things you use all the time should be within arms reach. The stuff used once a day on the shelves at the end of the desk, things once a week in the cupboard by the door, and stuff used twice a year in a storage container.

It’s basically about improving efficiency by reducing the amount of kit, everything in it’s place and a place for everything (shadow boards etc).

You can go a very long way with it, but to be honest it kind of petered out at our place once we’d done the sort stage!

Wiki explaination

I was gonna post the Lean thinking book, but mikewsmith has done it (amazon link here) best book on engineering/manufacturing ever. The bits I had a chance to put into practice correctly gave astounding results. My biggest issue was getting those higher up to change…

mike has exactly right – cocks applying it. For me lean is the grand daddy it covers all the rest, 5s 6 sigma are all like subsets of lean.

There is a lot of C I stuff done in the RAF however ive not come across the 5s stuff before, making an interesting read.

I think it will be quite usefull in the area I work as there is quite a lot of outdated stuff/info here and a lot of it can be cleared out and reorganized

Givn you have 10,000 ISOs full of crap at your location, a little bit more from your section thrown into the mix won’t stand out too much!

Sort, Sweep, Shine, Standardise, Sustain.

Good methodical way of creating an ordered, efficient, safe working environment. Part of the ‘Lean’ toolbox of management methods.

It is however only one technique/methodology on the road to continuous improvement- it will not ensure improvement used in isolation.

agreed Tootall.

The problem is that the manpower is made up from people fro different camps all over the uk who come out to do a 4 month detachment and try and put their slant on the place.

this leads to 4 or 5 different ways to do the same job and leads to a lot of ambiguity.

As the subject matter expert for my trade on my section I want to try and standardise it so the next lot of people that come out can just carry it on and hopefully wont feel the need to change anything.

What Ive found it that last year I was out here doing the same job and got the section up to the standard required to pass a Quality audit and also running smoothly. I left in July last year and between then and now things have took a massive downturn to the point where I dont even recognise some of the stuff i done previously.

If i can implement the 5s theory and lay it all out in an east to read document for the next people that come out to read and understand then I will feel that I have contributed to the smoother running of the section

this leads to 4 or 5 different ways to do the same job and leads to a lot of ambiguity

This is where the ‘Standardise’ element of 5S greatly helps. The hardest on to implement is ‘Sustain’ ie ensuring efforts are maintained.

I’ve found that a regular audit of the area that has been 5S’d helps and give a score. This helps focus on what needs to be improved and the score gives a measurable performance metric.

Of all of it. The sustain is the hardest part to achieve. The rest is common sense. Sustain takes real work