Dig Deeper
- Publication:
- Quality Progress
- Date:
- August 2013
- Issue:
- Volume 46 Issue 8
- Pages:
- pp. 42-49
- Author(s):
- Chadha, Rajeev
- Organization(s):
- Mosaic Potash ULC Canada, Saskatoon, Canada
Abstract
Sort, store, shine, standardize and sustain (5S) is a lean process for creating and maintaining an organized, clean, safe, and high-performing workplace. Not only can it transform the workplace, but it can also change employees' mindsets and behaviors so an entire workplace can travel toward reaching the highest levels of safety, productivity, quality, and efficiency. In reorganizing a workplace into a highly efficient operation, a 5S blitz approach can focus a team toward completing the 5S process and maintaining the order and efficiencies that have been unearthed. This article examines how the blitz approach was used at one soft rock mining site in Saskatchewan, Canada. The article includes an example of a 5S area scorecard that 5S area team leaders can use (as an alternative to radar chart analysis) to understand the 5S roadmap and assess their areas on a scale of five to 25.