A Case Study: 5s Implementation in Plastic Pipes Manufacturing

Company

Abstract - The research work carried out to apply the 5S methodology of lean manufacturing
to solve the problems of a Plastic Pipes industry in India with the aim to increase the efficiency
of all processes and elimination of losses in the company. The objectives of the paper is to
reduce the process wastes, smooth the process flow and maintain proper quality control, improve
storage facilities, safety, security and process cost savings in a company through case study.
Before and after picture are taken for the applying 5S methodology in a company. 5S
implemented has been carried out in storage department and extruder department.
Keywords--- 5S, Space Utilization, Elimination of Process Waste, Case Study

Introduction
LEAN thinking represents a set of principles and techniques for the identification and
elimination of waste in manufacturing and administrative processes. 5S is a technique originated
from Japan and it was first developed by Hiroyuki Hirano in 1980s. It include five Japanese
words Seiri(Sort), Seiton(Set in order), Seiso(Shine), Seiketsu(Standardize) and
Shitsuke(Sustain). The 5S philosophy focuses on simplification of the work environment,
effective workplace organization, and reduction of waste while improving safety and quality. It
allows the enhancement of efficiency and productivity. The 5S technique is a structured program
to systematically achieve total organization cleanliness and standardization in the workplace. The
benefit of 5S technique is improvement in productivity, quality, health and safety. Through 5S
methodology, the management can create an environment where quality work is comfortable,
clean and safe in the organization and it can ensure the compliance to standards and will further
foster continuous improvement.

Review Remarks
The recommendation to implement 5S To make the 5S practices more influential the top
management are required to fully support this activity all through the company. In order to make
the top management aware of the effectiveness of the 5S, they have to be shown the performance
of product quality of this approach.

The organization should institute a system of benchmarking with other companies which are
successful and make reference on a regular basis with the member of the Quality Team which
will provide assistance to the companies in terms of further comprehending its vision and
mission.

The involvement of all employees in the all departments in the program 5S. All staff should
understand the five good reasons 5S program should be practiced at the workplace as it will
result in a clean workplace with higher productivity, having a high quality, reducing cost, to
ensure timely delivery and consequently, it is a safe workplace.

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METHODOLOGY OF 5S
A method commonly used by a manufacturing company to achieve an effective, efficient, and
organized work environment, so as to boost productivity, reduce cost, and improve quality
standards. 5S include five japanies word which are seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shutsuke.
5S programs have been implanted in organizations and the world as a way to improve production
values while also improving employee morale and safety. The 5S methodology may be applied
to most workplace scenarios in a short period of time due to its simple nature. The before and
after picture are taken for implementation of 5S methodology in a company.

Figure 1 5S Methodology

[1] Seiri – Sorting

Sorting items which are not necessary and segregating and disposing of goods that are not
needed at work systematically. Separation process is helpful in determining the necessary
materials at the present or the future and should be stored in a designated storage area.
Unnecessary items will be disposed.The arrangement used for keeping each material in the
company at correct place is named as sort. The defective or rarely used material and
equipment’s in the company cause the demolishment of the workplace’s order and decrease
in the work efficiency. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with
productive work.

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 Benefits:

 Increased Productivity – The purpose of individual work areas will be more

apparent, leading to a highly efficient workflow.
 Workers will be more satisfied with their environment Employee morale would
increase as junk items or materials that are potential health hazards are
identified and removed.
 The end product of your labors will be much improved as full attention can be
paid to production.
 Employees will no longer need to focus on tangential tasks such as locating
tools implementing their own organization systems.

Before After

Figure 2 Sorting activities in engineering departments

[2] Set in Order

 Organization of Work Station

The next step after identifying the unneeded item is to organize the needed item as per the
specific job requirement in each station. In this process, tried to use as much of a visual approach
as possible to ease the organization process and make work easier for the worker. Pictures
(Figure 3) are taken to differentiate the after and before condition of a storage department,
thereby highlighting the importance of this process.

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The major benefits of organizing the work station are to ensure clear visibility of needed items,
increasing efficiency of job performed, reducing the run time, and increasing the productivity.
Figure 3, In Turning department the workplace is outline by the yellow line. So that is to
transportation of men, materials, equipment movement in the department is very easy and reduce
the product damage and accident.

Before After

Before After

Figure 3 Gemba Walk way marking and machine marking across the plant and offices

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 Benefits:

 Process improvement (increasing of effectiveness and efficiency).

 Shortening of the time of seeking necessary things.
 Safety improvement.

[3] Clean / Shine

In order to maintain a clean and organized work atmosphere, cleaning supply shadow board
are used. Several areas in the work station have problems keeping things clean. This
sometimes comes from not being able to find cleaning supplies. By creating the cleaning
supply shadow boards and locations for those supplies, everyone knew where to get them
when needed and where they belong after the completion of work. The importance of keeping
each station was paramount and awareness is created among the associates holding them
accountable for their specific work station. Also, trash bins (fig. 6) are labeled and located at
convenient locations to ease the implementation process.

Benefit:

The benefits of a clean workplace are readily apparent after a short period of time. Employee
morale increases, and the most productive time can be dedicated to the most important tasks.
 Maintenance the cleanness of devices.
 Maintenance the clean workplace, easy to check.
 Quick informing about damages (potential sources of damages).
 Improvement of the work environment.
 Elimination of the accidents’ reasons.

[4] Standardize

In order to standardize achieved, the workers from the department have agreed upon that
everyone should contribute to daily clean-up of the working place. Moreover, in the end of the
working week a more detailed clean-up is performed, the performance of which is controlled by
a dedicated employee on a week-clean up duty.

The task and responsibility are allocated to the worker for daily cleanup activity.
GEMBA board (Figure 7), used to evaluate all the key performance indicators (KPI); namely
safety, quality, productivity, labour absenteeism, and break down in the pug- mill of insulator
department. It is a visual method to track all the daily floor activities and also provide for the
posting of root causes and countermeasures when the KPIs do not meet the goal. Find below
gemba picture after implementation of 5S.

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 Figure 4 Standardize in across the plant and office

Benefit:

 Safety increasing and reduction of the industry pollution.

 Working out the procedures defining the course of processes

[5] Sustain

After the successful implementation of the 5S process, the discipline to sustain is of the most
importance. Proper awareness, correct structures and procedures, support from worker and
management, adaptability to 5S is vital for continuous improvement. In order to achieve that, a
5S observation sheet is prepared to aid in the implementation of the 5S process. The observation
was done on a monthly basis and the results are analyzed.

Benefits:

 Increasing of the awareness and morale.

 Decreasing of mistakes quantity resulting from the inattention.
 Proceedings according to decisions.
 Improvement of the internal communication processes.
 Improvement in the interaction of human relations.
 Visual information management,
 Storage Space Utilization

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Quality Control Lab Production Office Production Area

Utilities Zone Engineering Storage Office Area

Figure 5 below Improvement picture across the plant after 5S implementation

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