Understand the key facts that cause most of the enterprises are fails in the implementation of 5S at all levels of production floor.
Yesterday, a friend sent me a 5S CD, which was a video of him conducting 5S training at other companies and want me to give suggestions. When I saw him talking about the role of 5S, he said this:
“If through sorting out, the site is clean up beautifully, things are in order, when customers come to see it, they will be very satisfy, think that you screw and screws together, nails and nails together, naturally think that you are very discipline.”
Do you think? Customer satisfaction will definitely increase, and of course there will be more orders. “This friend is right about the surface effect of 5S.
In fact, the deep role of 5S is much more than that! However, in reality, many enterprises’ understandings of 5S also stays on this surface, but do not understand the real role of 5S, so that the implementation fails.
5S implementation At floor level!
Last month at a heavy machinery factory when I saw one of their machining shops. The work-in-process (WIP) was piling up. The logistics in the yard were chaotic, and the defective products were piled up between posts and no one dealt with them in time.
When we talked to this manager about 5S in his office. The manager said: “I just went to Japan to see it, and I see that the 5S of Japanese companies is not as good as ours!”
Their workshop is so small, so they must do 5S, our workshop is so big, I don’t see the need to do 5S like them. And I’m implementing lean manufacturing now, it’s just that I’m not call lean manufacturing.”
When you see his words, you may think that their 5S is indeed very high. But if you use my evaluation, their 5S level is score out of 10, and they get a maximum of 2 points!
Managers of such a level think that their 5S is very good, and even think that Japanese companies do 5S because of their small workshop area so they do 5S. Such words come from the mouth of the manager of one of our large state-owned enterprises. Which really makes people worry that when the world is becoming more and more competitive, when competitors are producing at our doorstep, maybe we are falling further and further away from our own bad opinions.
Facts at all levels of Production floor about 5S implementation
It is no wonder that the management level of many of our enterprises (especially many of our domestic enterprises) is difficult to improve.
The complaints we often hear focus on three aspects:
- Leaders do not pay attention.
- Employees are too low and.
- They cannot be persistent.
In fact, these are not the causes. These are because of an undesirable result after not implementing 5S correctly. When 5S is implement correctly, these three results will not appear.
Imagine, if a 5S implementation is successful, and can help the improvement of the company’s management level, can the leader not pay attention?
5S will put forward requirements for the quality of people in every link. If the implementation method is correct, will the quality of employees not be improve. And the purpose of 5S implementation is to improve the quality of employees, not because the quality of employees is too low to be implement, which is exactly the opposite of what many people understand.
Can’t insist, that means that 5S has become a superficial article. If it really helps the efficiency of the employees’ work, equipment failure, and product quality, and you want to return to the situation before the implementation, I am afraid that the employees will not let it, how can you not insist?
Beginning and levels of 5S implementation
Some time ago, a domestic steel enterprise implement 5S for 5 months and achieve satisfactory results. One of their group vice presidents ask us to continue our collaboration on process improvement and standardization. She can put forward such a long-term cooperation request because 5S has play an effect in their company, and this effect is not only clean on site. But comfortable at this level. Their 5S already involves process improvement and equipment maintenance.
Each promotion team gradually and naturally goes deeper into this level when implementing. In this enterprise, at the beginning, the above three reasons also appear, but through implementation, they found that all three so-called reasons have change.
Below, I will talk about how to solve these three complaints and successfully implement 5S.
First, “leaders do not pay attention.”
In order to solve this problem and make leaders pay attention. There are mainly the following ways:
First of all, make a little achievement and show it to the leader!
We enterprise administrators, especially those department managers, may wish to ask ourselves a question:
Even if the leader does not pay attention, can you really not do any 5S work?
How much can you do? Make a list!
Most of the middle-level cadres of these enterprises often blame their laziness on the leaders, and the phrase “the leaders do not pay attention” has become all the reasons for not doing well. That is only one excuse.
We saw that the site was chaotic, with excess items everywhere, items not fix, and employees often left their posts to spend a lot of time looking for or fetching.
We did a “stand in a circle” activity for several positions in a machine shop and learn that the real operation time accounts for about 50% of the total cycle time. In other words, the value increase time is only 50%, it can be said that the efficiency of the operation is waste by 50%, which can also be understood as the potential to double the production capacity!
So much waste is in the work, and our managers turn a blind eye every day.
Some people may say,
“This is the state of that business, and we are much better off than this.”
“I want to tell you that when we put these data on display, the company’s purchasing and warehousing manager immediately exclaimed:
“No way! If that’s the case, were we drinking the northwest wind?”
What about data !
He couldn’t believe that this data was real, but when the data surveyor clearly explain his measurement method and measurement process. The manager stop talking, and everyone was shock by this data.
In the past, I always thought that the efficiency was good, and I always thought that the employees were busy, but now the data tells everyone that there is a lot of waste buried in these “busy”, and a lot of gold mines that can be mine.
Then, we observe the operation process of some positions through video, and we found that in the past, when training, the 5S was sort out and rectify, as if there was no feeling, and through the video, we found that most of the waste was caused by not having a good rectification.
For example,
we observed an employee leave his post to look for a rope to lift the workpiece, and it took nearly 4 minutes to find it.
When he saw this, a manager stood up:
“Why can’t we fix this rope in one place, and everyone will go to the same place when they run out, so we don’t ask everywhere.” Or we can simply prepare a few more of these ropes, and we don’t have to find them.”
This is to put things in order!
Therefore, starting from the deputy general manager of the company. The managers of various departments work together to find waste that can be eliminate. Through the 5S method, see how much you can destroy. One month has passed, and the speed of changing molds for a position has increase by 30%; 20% more efficient in one assembly unit.
The efficiency of one machine unit has increased by 10%. All these efforts, without spending a penny (this is often one of the most managers say that the leader does not pay attention), without a single over shift, through engineers, 5S promoters, team leaders are completed. The company’s view of 5S has also completely changed.
When we discuss that the leader does not pay attention, our managers do not think carefully: what have they achieved for the leader to see? Those areas are within their own responsibilities, and they can be done well as long as they pay attention to them.
Therefore, in order to make the leader pay attention, you may as well do some results and let the leader see!
Second, “the quality of employees is too low.”
This is also the “reason” we often hear about enterprises. Those workshop directors and managers often complain that their operators are too poorly educated, poorly qualified, disobedient, and even stealing. So, this has become their biggest problem in implementing 5S. In their eyes, the prerequisite for the implementation of 5S is to have a group of good quality operators. And they forget that “literacy” is the last “S” in the 5S.
It is not because of the low quality that 5S cannot be implemented; But because it is precisely because of the low quality that it is necessary to vigorously implement 5S!
Here, let’s first talk about what the quality of employees on the enterprise site contains!
A Japanese improvement expert named Takashi Nagata, in one of his books, said that the quality of on-site employees in enterprises is divided into three levels:
One # Level
The first level is to comply with what is decided in advance and do the job well. These employees don’t care about waste in their work, and whatever you say, they will find and do. This basically meets the requirements of the enterprise.
One # Level
The second level is “ideas” that can be continuously proposed to improve various aspects of work. Employees at this level begin to think and constantly propose ideas for improvement, so that the management of the production department itself can be continuously improved, and a culture of continuous improvement can be formed.
Third # Level
The third level is not only to come up with “ideas” for improvement, but also to personally implement a large number of improvements and pass them on to others. Such employees can play a lot of roles in promoting the team spirit of the enterprise, and can form a culture of mutual learning, that is, a learning organization.
I personally agree with Mr. Nagata’s view that the first level is the basic requirement of the company, and these employees only know how to work according to the requirements and have no concept of improvement.
And what we see is that many employees of enterprises do not even comply with the regulations! Therefore, most managers constantly complain about the low quality of employees. But they never wondered:
Why aren’t these employees complaining?
After a lot of inspections, most of the employees’ reaction was that the regulations were too cumbersome and wordy, which made their work less efficient. So, they took their own approach.
These problems boil down to 5S almost without exception, and our managers never seem to think about how to find a way for employees to comply and be efficient. Therefore, in order to solve the low quality of employees, you should at least do the following things:
[1]
First, list all the things that employees don’t comply with. Then check each item and discuss with the 5S promoters, production technicians, and, if possible, employees why they are not compliant, and through team discussions, find out how to comply and ensure efficiency.
[2]
Second, encourage employees to speak up about tasks that are difficult to follow, or ask employees to bring up tasks that they believe affect productivity. And take appropriate encouragement, which can be material or immaterial. Our managers then design a process to improve these “hard-to-follow tasks” and discuss and improve them weekly. When the new method is designed, I think you have to get the employees back to the old method, and maybe they won’t do it anymore. The most important thing here is that our managers encourage employees to make suggestions, not to crack down on suggestions.
Conclusive
Finally, let employees improve their work. This is the highest level of employee improvement. When designing a reasonable improvement proposal system, and conducting education for all employees, with the help of 5S promoters.
Encourage some employees and serve as role models. Then guide the entire staff step by step. When employees slowly develop a culture of thinking and improving on their own, the production line will burst into a powerful force, which greatly improves on-site management. Of course, to encourage, there must be necessary incentives, not only material incentives, but also non-material incentives.
Successful experience tells us: don’t ask employees how high their education is, if you insist on taking various ways and constantly encourage them to participate in the improvement, they will find fun, they will like the job, and the quality of employees will naturally improve. It may be hard to imagine this, but it does have such an effect, so give it a try.
Third, “Can’t Persist”
During a 5S coaching session for a company, their deputy general manager once discuss 5S with me, and he made a very vivid and simple analogy. He believes that housewives are the stars of implementing 5S, you see them at home, clean up the house in order. If the oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar in the kitchen are place randomly. They will definitely not dry, and they will definitely put the oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar in a fix position.
It will sort all the items to be use in the kitchen, including tools, food, condiments, etc., and then “position” each item. They will put spoons, shovels, rice, garlic, condiments, etc. at their fingertips, so that when cooking, they can be more efficient. If you place the oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar in the kitchen in a high position, the housewife will definitely find a new place for them. And she certainly doesn’t want to put these items that she needs to use at any time far away. This is the typical 5S.
What does this story tell us about 5S implementation?
It tells us that when our 5S is just after some useless surface work, it’s hard for employees to stick to it. Not to mention employees, even we, it is difficult to persevere. But when 5S helps employees to be more efficient, it can allow them to produce more every day and let them do a lot less auxiliary work.
After a while, you want him to go back to the past, and it is probably difficult. Therefore, we fail to stick to it because we did not understand 5S enough, fail to really apply the effect of 5S to daily operations, and naturally employees could not stick to it.
Of course, 5S is not an overnight thing, so enterprises insist on two aspects of behavior in the early stage of introduction:
(1) Get involved.
We see the 5S implementation process of many companies, and when the training is being carried out. The 5S plan has also been made, so the managers think that this is a matter for employees and team leaders. Ignore it yourself. Of course, that’s not what they say. But the action shows such a fact. They did not personally observe the production positions, personally helped the employees to make tool racks, and personally help the team leader design the logo.
None of this has been personally involved.
Just constantly ask the production director, ask the team leader, and when they can’t take out the standard of the logo on time, they start to blame them. In Japan, “on-site management” is very popular, and of course, many of our company leaders have told us that they also pay attention to it.
However, their actions do not show the slightest that they attach importance to on-site management. On-site management requires us to follow the principle of “three presents”, adopt the idea of continuous improvement, and constantly pursue on-site improvement. Site management involves a lot that we won’t dwell on here.
But in on-site management, a very important rule is that managers must personally go to the site to patrol, see, listen, and understand. Then make improvements yourself or help them improve themselves.
Operators often lack thinking logic for what effect 5S can play and how it helps efficiency and quality (in fact, we found that most managers of domestic enterprises also lack this thinking logic.
Here, we assume that our managers have this logic of thinking, so it is difficult for them to think proactively just by asking for them. Because they do not know what the benefits will be if they do this, and naturally they will not be motivate.
Participation
The personal participation of managers can do things well at one time, and then tell employees the purpose of this, and when employees understand, they will take the initiative to think.
For example, we can help employees make a grid for placing knives, let employees put new knives in one row, wear knives in another row, and clearly marked, when the team leader sees that the new row is almost finish, and the old row is almost full, it can help employees sharpen the knives.
Then put it in those compartments so that employees don’t have to spend a lot of time looking for knives, and you can also make a simple observation to see how much time an employee spends on finding knives each day.
When this improvement is made, this waste is eliminate. The efficiency of employees increases. Then you can compare the before and after data for employees to see for themselves. In this way, employees can directly understand the impact of 5S on their work efficiency, and they will implement thinking improvements according to your thinking.
(2) Enterprises must hold regular 5S report meetings in the early stage of implementation.
Many company leaders think that this is unnecessary, everyone just does it, why do they have to spend time sitting in the conference room listening to reports? Many times, we get tired of frequent explanations, so sometimes we tell the managers directly: Japanese companies do this. Let’s do it first, and then you will naturally know the benefits of the report meeting!
In fact, the report is not just listening, its benefits are mainly reflect in four aspects:
First, it is a review of our 5S work in the past period.
What is our 5S implementation plan, and what has been complete in this cycle? What is not done? Why? How do you plan to replenish it next time? What are the plans for the next cycle?
Second, the sharing of experience.
Each unit will show the part it has done and share it with everyone, so that it can learn from each other and learn from each other.
Third, the role of promotion.
For those units that fail to meet and carry out on time, when they saw that other units were implementing well at the report meeting, they would naturally feel self-blame, and they would have more motivation next time.
Fourth, the support of the leadership.
In this report meeting, the company’s senior leaders are often ask to participate. They give verbal praise for doing well, and they also give encouragement and support to the units that fail to complete the plan on time, which is the best performance of the leader’s attention.
5S implementation failure, in addition to the three main reasons we mention above, there are other reasons, such as awareness problems, many managers think that 5S is not good, or think that it is just cleaning.
There is also the fact that the 5S level of managers themselves is very low, which is also very important reasons, such as how to quantify the work in process and so on these 5S methods, many managers do not know. These reasons are cause by the low level of managers themselves.
To solve this problem, then our managers must first make themselves 5S experts, the best way to solve is to use Toyota’s on-site improvement case training, most of Toyota’s training courses.
This is the way it is conducting, which we also call SCT training. Simply put, the effectiveness of training is measure by the results of the improvement project, and the improvement is carry out while training, not just lecture-style training. In the process of coaching a large number of enterprises. We found that these specific method-level obstacles are not real obstacles, and the above three problems are the biggest obstacles encounter by customers.
No matter how many reasons for the implementation failure, regardless of the subjective and objective conditions, when we become the identity of 5S and reach a certain level, as long as we seriously solve the above three main problems, the 5S of the enterprise will gradually succeed.