Slogan of oil pollution

Literally, 5S refers to five words in Japanese that begin with the Roman phonetic symbol "s", namely: cleaning, rectifying, cleaning, neatness and literacy. These five words and their meanings sound very simple, but they will have a profound impact on the company 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 under negotiation between K Company and a company in Hong Kong is to introduce new digital printing equipment and technology in K Company and transform its printing information system.

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 terms of the joint venture, investors 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 felt that Hong Kong was a bit "fussy". "Don't just do sanitation, make the environment more beautiful." Mr. 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 method" popular in Japanese manufacturing enterprises in 1950s requires a lot of preparation and training.

Literally, 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 types of papers piled up on the floor of the printing workshop, some of which are used now, and some 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 oil; The tools used by workers are not clearly marked, so it is 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 shelf where paper, ink and accessories are stacked and the finished product shelf, and it is very common that the commodity number does not match the commodity. Sometimes, the extra paper returned from the workshop is mixed with the new paper ordered, and no one knows how much is used.

Mr. Mai also checked the MIS system that Mr. Hou was proud of, and looked at 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 know what's inside until they are opened. Moreover, Mr. Mai found that there are various versions of documents, and there are countless expired documents, temporary documents, wrong documents or multiple copies of a document.

In k company, people have long been accustomed to the phenomenon that what they want is always difficult to find; What you don't want is not thrown away in time, as if you are always in the way; 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, Mak mentioned a dusty slogan posted on the wall: "Regard users as God and quality as life".

Clean up, rectify, sweep

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

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

Cleaning is to sort the defective products and non-essential products mixed with good materials, tools, accessories and documents. It is not a pity to deal with them on the spot and abandon them. "Especially electronic junk," Mak warned managers, "will greatly reduce your work efficiency; The continuous 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 marked and distinguished in an orderly manner according to the reasonable layout of the workspace and the actual needs of the work, and placed in a "accessible" and "visible" place 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".

Mak said: "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.

Cleaning, in short, is to do a thorough cleaning. If problems are found, they will be corrected in time. However, there are some differences between "cleaning" and "cleaning" that people used to say. "Cleaning up" only solves the problem of "environmental sanitation" according to the facts, and the foothold of "cleaning up" lies in "finding the source of garbage". In Mak's words, it means "check, check and test while cleaning".

resilience

With the gradual deepening of 3S (cleaning, rectification and cleaning) work, 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, and various forms and ledgers have also taken on a new look. However, everyone, including Mr. Hou, didn't think there was anything special about the "panacea" introduced by Mr. Mai.

However, Mr. Hou admits that some subtle changes have taken place 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 statistics submitted are no longer "unreliable" "confused accounts" in the past, and the workbench and office environment are indeed much more relaxed.

This is certainly not the whole of 5S management. Mr. Mai said to Mr. Hou in combination with the results of the previous stage of rectification: "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 diligent, thrifty, pragmatic and disciplined professionalism 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 persist in making 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.