Page "5S (methodology)" Paragraph 20

The next aim is Quality.

The degree of impact of dirt in a manufacturing environment, obviously, varies with the nature of the product and its process but there are few, if any, areas where dirt is welcome.

Even if it is only in the form of soiled documentation accompanying the goods to the customer this can send a very negative message about the company and its culture.

In other cases dirt can have a serious impact on product performance – either directly or indirectly, perhaps through compromising the integrity of test processes.

Of course, 5S does more than address dirt ; an inappropriate layout can result, for example, in product damaged through excessive movement or through the use of tooling other than that defined as the standard.

Standardisation is a theme of Hirano's approach, overlapping to a considerable extent with, for example, that of Ohno.

A Standard Operating Procedure for tool certification is much easier to achieve if the tool to be certified is always in a clearly-marked location.