What is the 5S methodology, and how did it come about? In this video, Steve Beauchamp delves into the origins of the 5S methodology and explains each step in the traditional 5S process: Sort (Seiri), Set in Order (Seiton), Shine (Seiso), Standardise (Seiketsu), and Sustain (Shitsuke).
The traditional 5S approach
Nick: So let's touch on your book. It opens with the questions: Do you find yourself drowning in clutter, wasting time, and feeling overwhelmed by disorganization in your business? Have you tried various solutions but they just don't stick?
And if I'm honest, sometimes I would be saying yes to those questions. So I'm guessing 5S is the answer to these questions. And in your book, you offer a new 5S approach, which we will explore in this episode.
So it would probably be wise to first talk about the traditional 5S model. So can you break down the 5S model, and what that is?
Steve: I think maybe it's good to kind of go back in time a little bit to post World War II, Japan, back when the country was recovering from the devastation of what war brings. There was a group of folks working at a small, little automotive manufacturer that you might have heard of, called Toyota.
And they had a few individuals that worked there that really were prolific in how they thought about manufacturing, and one of the methodologies that they developed was what we now know as 5S. So 5S is not really a fancy kind of acronym, it's really just all the words start with the letter S, and so that's kind of where it came from.
And it's really been the backbone in the manufacturing world for a long time. And probably sometime in the 1980s is when it really started kind of spreading globally. So maybe it will be helpful to talk through like the traditional order of how 5S has been taught in the Western world. So it starts with the first S.
And for the sake of our listeners, maybe I'll break out both of the English and the Japanese at the same time. So the first one is Sort or Seiri, the second is Set in Order, or Seiton. Then you have Shine, which is Seiso, and then you have Standardise, Seiketsu, and then finally Sustain, which is Shitsuke.
So it's not an overly fancy or complicated kind of methodology. It's really about how to organize your workplace in a way that makes sense and really helps your workplace become just easier on the people.
I think the traditional way that it's been taught in the West, and how I was originally taught, too, is this idea of, well, you just go through this in order. It's just like a step-by-step, linear kind of path; we just start with sorting, and then we finish with sustain.
And I think the thing that's challenging about that is it doesn't really take into account how life actually happens in the workplace—it kind of makes you feel like, oh, there's this pressure to get to the end, where it's like this kind of project, kind of thinking.
I think that's traditionally how I was taught, and how a lot of people think about it. So I think that's kind of like a great introduction to traditionally what it's been known as.