The importance of a tidy and clean environment
Reorganising spaces using the Japanese ‘5 S’ approach
A talk with Alfonso De Siati
An important role in making a work environment pleasant is certainly played by the tidiness and cleanliness of spaces. After all, who would want to spend 8 hours a day in a messy and dirty place?
To ensure maximum well-being during the hours spent in production, Alfonso De Siati, Production Manager at CPC Inox, and his team have developed and passionately pursued a strategic space reorganisation project, adopting the Japanese ‘5 S’ approach.
We asked Alfonso to tell us about it.
What is it all about?
“The five S’s represent a series of techniques to build an effective and efficient system of organising the workplace and related activities”.
The five S stand for:
- SEIRI Sort
- SEITON Stabilize
- SEISO Shine
- SEIKETSU Standardize
- SHITSUKE Sustain
The 5 S’s in practice
“These five techniques, if applied and shared with all workers, can lead to real benefits in terms of both production efficiency and improvement of the working environment. In fact, it is a project that is born out of good teamwork, to be internalised and put into practice by each one of us, so as to create shared procedures that can constantly improve, thanks to everyone’s contribution”. De Siati says.
But specifically, what do these terms mean? Let’s see the details:
SORT the necessary from the superfluous, eliminating what is not necessary to avoid confusion and optimise space
STABILIZE all tools by coding them and storing them in defined locations makes it easier to find tools
SHINE
Cleanliness is aimed at inspecting any anomalies and is a necessary condition for well-organised production. A clean and tidy working environment is certainly more pleasant to live in for all workers.
STANDARDIZE
Define standards of tidiness and cleanliness and monitor their maintenance over time in order to provide each person with precise indications on how best to maintain the working environment.
SUSTAIN
Through training, communication, empowerment and motivation, the aim is to achieve continuous and proportional improvement in terms of tidiness and cleanliness and in terms of safety, quality and efficiency.
What are the objectives of the project?
Our production facilities cover an area of about 57,000 square metres, in which more than 130 people work every day. With these numbers, a correct organisation of space becomes essential for several reasons. If I had to summarise the main objectives of the project I would say:
- Increase SAFETY in the workplace
- Guarantee QUALITY through an environment that promotes precision
- Increase the SPEED of processes, for example by reducing the time needed to search for faults or tools.
- Optimise SPACE
- Make the working environment PLEASANT TO LIVE IN
