Why 5S does not produce the desired results

Over the past 20 years I have visited numerous manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Spain, and China to assess workplace organization and performance issues. I was able to take a close look at their trades and see both the upside and the downside of those trades.

While each plant had its own strengths and weaknesses, one fact was clear: many of the plants had undertaken some form of workplace organization, some had implemented 5S. None were getting the results they wanted by undertaking the effort. Some only practiced it when Senior Management was scheduled to visit, others made only half-hearted attempts to implement 5S, and few had a serious and lasting follow-up.

In fact, they were just going through the motions, like writing it into their mission statements, management loudly proclaiming its virtues but taking little interest in the day-to-day mechanics, and claiming to have created a visual workspace when in fact all they did. what they did was little. rather than create signs. The clutter and unnecessary items were still apparent for the most part and the clerk had little apparent understanding of the need to keep it free of unnecessary items.

The fact is that we know what to do. 5S is a lean manufacturing approach to manufacturing based on the Toyota Production System. Management’s job in lean manufacturing is to identify and eliminate all forms of waste, including:

• Overproduction: production in excess of customer requirements
• Inventory: hold or purchase excess materials
• Transport – unnecessary handling
• Standby: time delays or idle time
• Movement – actions of people that do not add value
• Overprocessing: unnecessary processing steps
• Fixed – Scrap production or parts requiring rework
• Not using human resources – not implementing the ideas/suggestions of the employees.
• There are many impediments to the implementation of lean manufacturing and especially to the proper use of 5S principles and practices:
• Incorrect measures of plant performance
• Incorrect focus: too much focus on results, not enough on improving processes
• Lack of confidence in the worker’s abilities to recognize and solve problems;
• Unwillingness to invest time and resources in the correct implementation of 5S
• Failing to recognize your survival obligation to all stakeholders and that change is the key to survival.

Incorrect measures of plant performance

Performance is affected by many factors, especially when the focus is on the short term. Most of these factors are beyond the immediate control of management. Cash flow (the lifeblood of any business) is affected by interest rates and can have a dramatic impact on your plant’s profitability. Government policies and over-regulation affect profits in many ways. Also, sales volumes or product prices affect a plant’s profit level. When these factors have a positive impact on profits, the operation is considered successful and handsomely rewarded even if the management practices are inefficient and wasteful. When they negatively impact profits, even the best managers are often seen as abysmal failures and are removed from their jobs.

Worst of all, earnings measures are easily manipulated by “cooking the books.” In most of the facilities I visited, it was very common and obvious that management manipulated inventory levels in one way or another. One plant manager told me that while he wanted to reduce inventories, to keep his efficiency ratios high, he had to overproduce during downtime. This led to higher inventory levels which, if reduced to appropriate levels, would have a negative impact on their measure of profitability. Too great a focus on Profitability as a performance measure often results in short-term thinking. What incentive is there for a company driven by profitability measures to invest in a 5S project that might have higher costs in the short term has the potential for significant savings in the long term?

wrong approach

People tend to do what they are rewarded for. If your focus is on equipment utilization rather than customer demand, the equipment will run at full capacity, despite actual demand. The result is overproduction, which is the basis for virtually all manufacturing waste. Focusing on responsibility for machine use has the undesirable effect of increasing waste.

To effectively and continuously improve performance and eliminate waste, all processes must be analyzed, understood, and then controlled. Measuring process effectiveness will shift the focus to long-term improvements like 5S and allow companies to reward managers for real performance. Measuring results, on the other hand, only promotes manipulation and short-term thinking.

Lack of confidence in the abilities of workers.

When management is unwilling to develop their employees and allow them the freedom to manage their own processes, they will miss out on capturing the full potential of the organization. I am a firm believer that the solution to every problem facing a company or plant today is found within the four walls of that facility.

Unwillingness to invest time and resources in the correct implementation of 5S

Management is driven by two things:

• Budget
• Calendar

Anything that interferes with either is seen as an enemy of management, as a result many managers only give lukewarm support for new ideas and projects they are unfamiliar with. This is compounded by the fact that most people proposing a lean initiative like 5S don’t take the time to codify it in the language of business. They talk about generalities and the successes of other organizations. They fail to present a legitimate business case for change. Managers have legitimate questions like:

• How will this affect the budget? Is it a legitimate investment opportunity or just another flavor of the month?
• How can we minimize the impact on the schedule and still provide people to plan and implement 5S? Where do the extra people come from? Etc.

Many managers simply don’t believe in the effectiveness of lean manufacturing and 5S in particular. Many of the managers I spoke with defended the poor manufacturing practices they routinely employed to keep their productivity numbers up and their bonuses up to date.

Failure to recognize their survival obligation to all stakeholders

Many managers feel that change is unnecessary. The company made money before the recession and the good times will be back when it’s over. The focus is often on job security rather than job security, the problem is that there is a radical change taking place in the world economy and companies are facing global competition like never before. Many managers fail to see the change that has occurred and the threat it poses to their very survival. They prefer to bury their heads in the sand rather than address the need for their own survival; after all, the government will bail them out! The fact is that jobs (including those of managers) are changing and managers are better off changing their approach to securing employment and letting the job change as needed.

One of the key elements of the manager’s job was control, which has been modified to include empowerment. To survive and remain employed, managers must relinquish some of their control to employees, allowing them to control more of their workspace and workflow. 5S is a great example of how to effectively empower employees while maintaining the necessary control over budget and schedule.

Produce the desired results

If the plant is operating effectively (and you have properly linked the operating measure to the financial goals), profitability will follow. The key for 5S to produce the desired results is to link it to the goals and strategic objects of the company. The main objective of most companies is to make money by producing a product or service that meets the needs of their customers. This fact is often lost in management’s vision statements and lofty purpose statements. The vision should be what your business is going to do to meet that goal of making money. The mission statement is how you will accomplish it. Typical purpose statements uttered by various levels of management that do not reflect the vision and mission statement simply confuse and divert the attention of the people who have to carry out the mission. The solution to this problem is the use of strategic thinking to define the needs of the business according to the proposed vision and mission.

The next element to ensure success is to refocus the workforce on a new set of measures and processes that focus on increasing throughput, decreasing inventory, and reducing operating costs. This means completely abandoning many of the traditional measures such as efficiency and seeking more effectiveness. This will require analyzing your processes for the value they add to your products or services. In the short term, this can lead to increased downtime. Smart managers will take advantage of this downtime to develop better uses of this non-productive time, such as training, total productive maintenance, team building, and continuous improvement activities. Proper training and management will allow workers to spend their downtime improving the processes they work on, as well as their workplace. By eliminating wasteful activities that do not add value, such as overproduction, and empowering and training your workforce, your company can improve its competitiveness and ensure its survival.

Your employees and support staff will need all the tools and techniques of lean manufacturing and 5S practices to sustain, self-audit, and continually improve the workplace and their jobs. They will need a well thought out and planned program that is supported by management at all levels. Note that the most frequently missing element is management commitment. If you invest everyone’s time and commitment in 5S, and some people fail to uphold the standard, the program will collapse. Management must support the program with policies and procedures that are enforced.

Regular monitoring is also required to ensure processes are working as intended or modified in a controlled manner when necessary. Management must not only commit resources, they must commit their time to get involved. They must lead from the front and have high visibility in the workplace.