Stories related to 5S management

Literally speaking, 5S refers to the five words in Japanese that begin with the Roman phonetic symbol "S", namely: cleaning up, rectifying, cleaning up, neatness and literacy. These five words and their meanings sound very simple, but they will have a profound impact on the company's culture. ...

K company is a printing enterprise, mainly engaged in packaging corrugated boxes, screen printing and traditional offset printing business. Two years ago, the company launched a set of "printing management information system", which really played a great role in the highly competitive printing market. At this time, Mr. Hou, the general manager of the company, began to look to the field of all-digital printing.

Accept the 5S challenge

The joint venture project that K Company is negotiating with a company in Hong Kong is to introduce new digital printing equipment and technology in K Company and transform its printing information system at the same time.

However, the joint venture negotiations with Hong Kong businessmen are not smooth. The other party put forward many opinions on the factory management of K company, and Mr. Hou thought it was too "picky": for example, the paper, ink and tools in the warehouse and workshop were not arranged neatly; The ground is not clean enough, and the oil on the printing press is "unbearable"; Workers' work clothes are also "unsatisfactory" ...

Later, in the joint venture clause, the investor insisted on "introducing the 5S method of on-site management of modern production enterprises" as a necessary condition and wrote it into the contract text.

At first, Mr. Hou and the management of the company thought that Hong Kong was a bit "fussy". "Don't just do sanitation, make the environment more beautiful." Teacher Hou always thinks that these things are too "naive" and have nothing to do with modern management and information management.

However, for the smooth progress of the joint venture, Mr. Hou still readily promised.

A few months later, Mr. Hou recalled these "trivial things" and "had a feeling of being reborn".

The shock of "trivial"

The popularization of "5S Management Law" popular in Japanese manufacturing enterprises in 1950s requires a lot of preparation and training.

Literally speaking, 5S refers to five words in Japanese that begin with the Roman phonetic symbol "s", namely, Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke.

These five words and their meanings sound simple. At first, everyone was very disapproving.

A few days later, Mr. Mai, who was sent by Hong Kong to guide the implementation of 5S, gave a strong shock to the leaders and employees of K Company through on-the-spot investigation and a large number of on-site photos and investigation materials.

Mak found that there are always different kinds of papers piled on the floor of the printing workshop, some of which are used now, and some of which are "I don't know who moved here"; Waste ink and the removed roller and screen are lying in a corner of the workshop, covered with greasy; The tools used by workers are not clearly marked, so it is very troublesome to find a suitable tool.

The situation in the warehouse is not much better.

There is only a narrow, non-isolated passage between the shelves where paper, ink and accessories are stacked and the finished goods shelves, and the article number often does not match the goods. Sometimes, the extra paper returned by the workshop is mixed with the new paper ordered, and no one can tell how much is used.

Mr. Mai also looked at Mr. Hou's proud MIS system and several computers in the planning department, sales department and purchasing department, and found that the files on the hard disk were equally chaotic. There are arbitrary subdirectories and arbitrary files everywhere. Some subdirectories and files don't open, so I don't know what's inside. Moreover, Mr. Mai found that there are many versions of files, such as expired files, temporary files, wrong files or multiple copies of a file.

In k company, people have long been accustomed to this phenomenon: what they want is always hard to find; Unwanted things are not thrown away in time, as if they were "in the way" at any time; In workshops, desks, filing cabinets and computers, there are such "I don't know" everywhere-I don't know whose it is; I don't know when it was put here; I don't know if it is still useful; I don't know if it should be removed; I don't know how many. ...

"In this case," Mr. Mai asked Mr. Hou bluntly, "how do you ensure the quality of the products? How to make sure that the data in the computer is true? How to boost morale? Enhance employees' sense of honor and mission? " Finally, Mai pointed to a dusty slogan posted on the wall, "regard users as God and quality as life".

Clean up, rectify, sweep

Mak divides the promotion of 5S into two steps. The first step is to advance the first three "s", that is, cleaning, rectifying and cleaning.

Cleaning is to make clear what is useful, useless, rarely used or damaged for everyone and every production site (such as workstations, machines, places, walls, shelves, etc.). ), every desk, every computer.

Cleaning is to sort out the defective products and non-necessities mixed in good materials, tools, accessories and documents. It is a pity to deal with it on the spot and abandon it. "Especially electronic' garbage'," Mak warned managers, "will greatly reduce your work efficiency; The constant search, confirmation and comparison of files will waste a lot of working time. "

Rectification means that every "useful" article, tool, data and electronic document that has been cleared out should be identified and distinguished in an orderly manner, and placed in an "easy-to-take" and "eye-catching" place according to the reasonable layout of the workspace and the actual needs of the work, so as to ensure that it can be taken at will.

"Rectification" sounds simple, but judging from Mak's experience, it is actually a very detailed job. For example, the computer file directory is the best example.

"Generally speaking, time, version, nature of work and document owner may all be key factors in document classification." Mak introduced "what is electronic office" in detail with his own experience. For a company that gradually uses computers and networks for production process management and daily affairs, how to deal with the relationship between paper documents and electronic documents is an important part of developing the good habit of "electronic office".

"In the process of electronization, if the bad habits of' dirty, messy and poor' in the manual work environment are brought in, the harm is enormous," Mak said.

Cleaning, in short, is to do a thorough cleaning. Find problems and correct them in time. But there are still some differences between "cleaning" and "cleaning" that everyone used to say in the past. "Cleaning" only solves the problem of "environmental sanitation" truthfully, and the foothold of "cleaning" lies in "finding the source of garbage". In Mak's words, it means "check, check, check while cleaning".

resilience

With the gradual deepening of 3S (cleaning, rectification and cleaning), the windows of workshops and offices have been cleaned, and the sanitary corners have also been cleaned. The "key rectification targets" such as warehouses, filing cabinets, file directories on computer hard disks, various forms and ledgers have also been completely renewed. However, including Mr. Hou, everyone has no special feeling about the "panacea" introduced by Mr. Mai.

However, Mr. Hou admits that there have been some subtle changes in everyone's mental outlook: people's mood seems to be much better than in the past, and some "informal" people's loose habits have converged; The statistical data submitted are no longer the "unreliable" "confused accounts" as before, and the workbench and office environment are indeed much more relaxed.

This is certainly not the whole of 5S management. Combining the results of the previous stage of rectification, Mr. Mai said to Mr. Hou: "The focus or difficulty of 5S management is not only to correct some mistakes or clean up some garbage; The core of 5S management is to shape meticulous professionalism and cultivate diligence, pragmatism and discipline through continuous and effective improvement activities. "

According to Mak's suggestion, the company started the second step of implementing 5S management: implementing the last two "S", one is Seiketsu and the other is Shitsuke.

The basic meaning of neatness is "how to keep clean", that is, how to stick to it and make a clean and orderly workplace the standard of daily behavior; The basic meaning of literacy is "cultivating sentiment and improving self-cultivation", that is, consciously and voluntarily implementing these very basic norms and guidelines in daily work, restraining one's own behavior and forming a fashion.

Mak further stated that Ming Dow's last two "S" are actually the concentrated expression of company culture. It is hard to imagine that customers will trust a company full of garbage and dust; It is also hard to imagine that employees will have a great sense of responsibility to ensure production quality and labor efficiency in a working environment with lax discipline, harsh environment and waste everywhere; In addition, not to mention that in a "dirty, chaotic and poor" enterprise, information systems will play a huge role.