How to? - 5S (Lean Manufacturing) with icmInspector?

What is 5S?

5S is a set of techniques and methods aimed at establishing and maintaining high quality jobs. 5S is at the same time one of the basic tools of Lean Manufacturing and Lean Management, because it is directly related to the proper organization of work environment, improvement of organizational culture of the company and – very importantly - allows to increase process stability. For this reason, 5S is often treated as a key Lean Management technique, implemented in manufacturing and service companies as one of the first, constituting the basis for further Kaizen activities.

The Five Ss refer to the five dimensions of workplace optimization:

• Seiri (Sort), 
• Seiton (Set in order), 
• Seiso (Shine, clean up), 
• Seiketsu (Standardize), 
• Shitsuke (Sustain) 

Each of the 5S elements listed above requires the introduction of a set of repetitive actions in the area of ​​training and control.

How does icmInspector support these activities?

Training.

The effectiveness of training depends on the model of knowledge transfer during their duration. The simpler and more explicit the message, the better. icmInspector system allows you to build training scenarios in the form of an anonymous questionnaire, in which we have one topic at each step with graphic documentation and hints. It has long been known that mono-mathematical lessons that present the expected actions or behaviors in a synthetic way bring the best results. Of course, apart from the training itself, it is necessary to verify the acquired knowledge and here we also provide the opportunity to build tests with one or many correct answers. The set of these functionalities guarantees that every new person in the organization will have the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge and verify this knowledge. What's more, this model of operation itself already implements one of the elements of 5S, namely Standardization (Seiketsu).

Control.

An organization implementing Lean Management and Lean Manufacturing must be prepared for continuous control processes that ensure ongoing monitoring of implementation progress.  icmInspector system is also an excellent tool in this area because it provides the ability to plan audits, perform them and automatically analyze collected data. The first step is to build control scenarios for each of the areas, e.g .:
• workplace control,
• control of common tools marking,
• product quality control.
It is very important that the control itself ensures the highest level of impartiality and unambiguity of the collected data. These two elements are implemented through questions with a graphic presentation of the correct patterns, e.g. Does the shelf have markings in accordance with the pattern in the photo? Do the horizontal lines mark the surfaces according to the pattern in the picture? The answers to such a question are only YES or NO. On this basis, icmInspector system automatically detects negative events in the control results and automatically notifies responsible persons. Matrix data presentation allows you to quickly analyze data from a longer period of time, which is also helped by the ability to set colors for individual responses. Thanks to this, e.g. by marking all negative responses in red on one screen, we can focus our eyes only on the controls that revealed such events.

If you are interested in the subject of 5S, Lean Manufacturing and Lean Management, contact us via our Contact Form or Chat with our consultants.

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