Three reasons why 5s is important

Why is 5S so important and why do many people choose to work with it? The answer to this question varies, but most agree that it creates efficiency and quality in work. This includes lower complaint costs, fewer communication errors, shorter set-up times and reduced time to find the right information, tools and materials.

We have listed three reasons why it is important to work with 5:

1. fewer errors

Disorder can increase the risk of poor quality and missing Products can take a long time to find. A defective component that ends up among the working ones can lead to errors in production that, in the worst case, may not be discovered until the product reaches the end customer. Keeping things in order and making 5S work routine reduces the risk of errors, which has an impact on both complaint costs and customer satisfaction. The need for 5S may be particularly strong in workplaces with a constant flow of components and Products, such as assembly workplaces or material processing (links).

2. A more pleasant working environment

Most people would agree that a clean and tidy workplace is more pleasant than a messy one. By creating a 5S culture and getting all employees on board, order is constantly maintained, so that the more orderly employees do not have to clean up after the others. 5S therefore contributes to a cleaner and more pleasant working environment, where time and energy are not spent on picking up after colleagues.

3. Higher efficiency

At the beginning of a 5S job, you clear away what is not necessary in the workplace. The next step is to give each item its place, with hanging, hooks, markings, etc., with the most frequently used items placed closest and at a height that is easy to access. This makes it easy to find what you need, and productivity is not affected by lost tools, for example. Keeping frequently used tools and components close at hand speeds up the work and, as a bonus, often contributes to better ergonomics! If there are many tools in use, it can be difficult to remember which places they were picked from. This can be easily facilitated with pictures placed in the workplace showing how the structure looked from the beginning.

Find out more about the benefits of 5S in our white paper "Creating a 5S structure".