2023 RETA Breeze March-April

MY TAKE ON 5S

Perhaps you have heard of “5S” as a Lean Manufacturing Principal. There are various versions of what the five “S’es” stand for. I like this version: Sort, Shine, Straighten (or Set in Order), Standardize and Sustain. A 5S program must be implemented in sequential order, starting with Sort. Think of Sort as making two piles—one pile to keep, and one pile to be thrown away or recycled. A way to ease into the 5S Sort phase is to start a red-tag system, but I recommend saving that for later. Dig all the junk out of the corners of the engine room and drag it out to the light of day. Discard the junk that you have been hanging onto—the broken equipment and machinery that you never get around to repairing. Get rid of the broken and worn-out tools and obsolete parts. My recommendation is to be as ruthless as possible in this first step. Keep in mind that everything you put in the “keep” pile you will have to find a place for later.

Now that you can see the floor again, grab a mop and a broom—it’s time to Shine. Literally shine—clean that engine room until things shine. Sweep and mop to clean up the grit and grime, as well as the oil and grease. Don’t focus all your attention on the floor, get rid of the cobwebs, too. Clean the overheads. Clean the equipment. Your workplace is already starting to look so much better, but don’t stop now. Once that job is done, it is time to Straighten or Set in Order. Set in Order by taking immediate advan tage of the cleaning that you have just done. Paint the floors with a good durable paint. Pick a light color that will help with lighting. This is a great time to consider a LED lighting project (with the fixtures strategically configured to eliminate dark spots and shadows). Mix some grit into the paint in spots where things could get slippery. If your budget will allow, invest in a professionally installed epoxy floor.

Definitely invest in storage equipment such as cabinets and shelving. Remember all the stuff you put in the “keep” pile? Now it’s time to find a home for all that stuff. Now might be a good time to mention that some folks prefer the term“6S” to the term“5S”. If you research it, you will discover that the sixth “S” is for Safety. I work in safety. In my opinion, enhanced safety is inherent in a 5S environment. Workplace safety automatically improves when 5S is implemented, just like it does when you employ properly trained and certified operators. So, as important as Safety is to me, my sixth “S” is not safety, it’s Security. Security needs to be designed into the engine room workspace during the Set in Order step. Unauthorized personnel should not be allowed in the engine room. That makes the Set in Order step easier. Schedule 80 and 3000# threaded fittings work well on hydraulics

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