Sustain is Step 5 of The 5S System

The 5th Step of 5S

The 5S System is a systematic 5 step process for workplace organization. It is not a list of random things to do. The last step is called “sustain” and, as the name implies, is designed to maintain the gains made with the first 4 steps.

When you reach the 5th step, it’s time to sustain the workplace organization you have achieved. You can accomplish this through gemba walks and two types of audits.

Learn more about gemba walks at: Gemba Walkers.

The 2 types of audits are “Daily Audit” and “Monthly Audit”. The names might give you a hint at how relatively simple these audits can be. But don’t be fooled! Those who fail to sustain The 5S System often fail because they do not conduct audits or they conduct them poorly. Failure to sustain means you are doomed to a version of Groundhog Day where you need to repeat the earlier steps every time your workplace becomes disorganized.

Let’s look closer at each type of audit which keeps Groundhog Day from happening.

Daily Audits

Everyday, your supervisor or team lead will assess workplace organization. Depending on the type of workplace, this will include such items as:

• Tools have been put away
• Shadow boards look great
• Floors have been swept and more as required
• Trash and recycling has been taken out
• No food service, personal items, or other clutter
• Equipment which is not needed now has been turned off
• No safety hazards exist
• Bathrooms are clean
• Break area is clean

In general, the daily audit needs to confirm the workplace is organized. This audit should be fast. It should be lightning fast. For multi-shift operations, this daily audit should be part of the shift hand-off process.

The best organizations discover how everything on the audit is part of the Standard Work for other activities. You do not need to have new-to-the-world processes for the sustain step. Even the daily audit should be woven into a shift hand-off, daily start-up, or end-of-day process.

Monthly Audits

The daily audit by a supervisor or team lead should “theoretically” be all you need. However, reality is different than theory.

Reality, at most organizations, reveals how a monthly audit, by a second set of eyes, is the key to sustainability. The monthly audit, by someone outside the day-to-day excitement of the workplace, is the silver bullet to the sustainability step in The 5S System.

Many organizations will have supervisors go audit one area, while someone else audits their area. A company, I worked for, would have plant managers and warehouse managers conduct a 5S audit whenever they were visiting another location. In a similar fashion, the HR Manager would go audit the Customer Service department and vice-versa.

Lazy people will say the daily audits are all they need. Those with wisdom will know a second set of eyes will see how shadow boards are screaming about missing tools or a dangerous safety issue is going unaddressed.

In most cases, the items on the audit checklist are the same for both the daily and monthly audits. There can be exceptions. It’s a balancing act to keep it simple and keep it effective at the same time. There is an enormous benefit when you can compare the scores from daily and monthly audits, without having to explain differences in the checklists.

Beyond the Audits

Daily and Monthly Audits are not the end of the story. The scores need to be reported and non-conforming situations need to be addressed. Three activities should happen with the audit results:

1. Corrective Action and Root Cause Analysis
2. Report at the Weekly Performance Review
3. Report at the Monthly Performance Review

Let’s look closer at each of the above.

1. Corrective Action and Root Cause Analysis

The leadership of the workplace should receive the results of every daily audit. Any nonconforming situations need to be addressed. Then, the root cause needs to be identified and eliminated. As mentioned above, the items on the audit checklist reflect the standard work for various processes. It’s the last time a process was performed, and the standard work was not followed, which needs to be investigated. As with most root causes, you often find a lack of training or conflicting performance measures means you are getting close to the reason for the failure.

2. Report at the Weekly Performance Review

The scores for the daily audits should be summarized and reported at the Weekly Performance Review. The department manager needs to ask about all scores below 100%. This sounds easy, but I reviewed the reports for one company and noticed how low scores on 5S audits went unchallenged for 6 months.

3. Report at the Monthly Performance Review

The scores for the monthly audits should be reported at the Monthly Performance Review. The director, or vice president, needs to ask about all scores below 100%. Beyond getting to anything below 100%, it might also be wise to question an uninterrupted string of 100% for many months in a row. This perfection needs to align with the observations from the gemba walks which the director, or vice president, have been taking. If the gemba walks indicate the workplace is organized and the monthly audits confirm the same thing, then you are in great shape.

Summary of 5S Sustain

The 5S System is a systematic 5 step process for workplace organization. The 5th step is sustain and requires gemba walks and audits to ensure the gains and benefits of workplace organization remain in place.

The wonderful news is how most of the effort for achieving sustainability with 5S is building the right behaviors and actions into the standard work for normal daily processes. The observant reader will have noticed how sustain leverages many aspects of Lean which are required for crafting a sustainable organization. These are:

• Gemba Walks
• Standard Work
• Performance Reviews
• Root Cause Analysis

Those who fail at the sustain step will find themselves in a perpetual repeat of Groundhog Day. One sure sign of this is when you have to clean the place up every time a customer is coming to visit. 5S Failure is all too common and often results from trying to sustain before you have implemented the things mentioned above.

Mike Loughrin

Mike Loughrin is the CEO and Founder of Transformance Advisors. He also teaches for Louisiana State University Shreveport and is on the board of directors for the Association for Supply Chain Management Northern Colorado.

Mike brings exceptional experience in industry, consulting services, and education. Mike has helped organizations such as Levi Strauss, Warner Home Video, Lexmark, and Sweetheart Cup.

Keeping a commitment to a balanced life, Mike loves downhill skiing, bicycle rides, and hiking in the mountains. See one of his trails of the month at: Little Switzerland.

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