5s a quality improvement tool for sustainable performance: literature review and directions

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Seiton 
Systematize 
Configure 
Neatness 
Arrange necessary items in good 
order for quick retrieval and 
storage (Set in Order). 
Seiso 
Sanitize or 
Shine 
Clean and 
Check 
Cleaning 
Clean the workplace so that there 
is no dust on floor and 
equipment. 
Seiketsu 
Standardize 
Conformity 
Standardization 
Maintain 
high 
standard 
of 
housekeeping, cleanliness and 
workplace organization. 
Shitsuke 
Sustain 
Custom and 
practice 
Discipline 
Routine practice of 5S initiatives 
by imbibing it in the standard 
operating procedures and making 
it customary for everybody in the 
organization. 
Some organizations find it hard to imbibe 5S principles and believe that it’s only a 
cleanup process and too busy to implement it (Hirano, 1995). Patten, (2006) has emphasized that 
5S is much more than cleanup. 5S is a philosophy for systematically achieving overall 
organization cleanliness and standardization at workplace that is motivating and pleasing to all 
the employees in the organization. 5S is a philosophy for reshaping the workplace and providing 
foundation for significant improvements at workplace. 5S changes the approach of the 
employees towards their work, workplaces and improves communication among various 
business functions and departments. A well-organized workplace provides a safe and efficient 
production environment, which boosts the employee morale, promotes the feeling of ownership, 
pride in their work and ownership of their responsibilities.
Since its introduction and acceptance by Japanese’s firms in Japan, 5S practice has been 
successfully deployed in many western countries including USA. The magazine ‘The Fabricator’ 
states that U.S companies are dedicated toward 6S, since they have added one new S in the 5S 
methodology which stand for safety that include safe behavior and observation. The astonishing 
statistics from the report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics called ‘The U.S. and 
Japanese Work Injury and Illness Experience’ in 1992 indicated that due to the extreme pressures 
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of high productivity requirements and highly standardized work procedures, the Japanese auto 
manufacturing industries in America have experienced high rate of accumulative trauma as 
compared to U.S owned plants. It was observed that safety factor was indispensable element in 
U.S industries. Therefore, all organizations needed a safe working environment at their shop 
floor. So it was argued by some organizations that safety factor should be included as a separate 
element in 5S, thereby converting the traditional Japanese 5S into 6S, while some organizations 
believed that safety issues were covered appropriately in 5S methodology. Thus US 
organizations recommended that the companies wishing to implement 5S should follow 6S 
firstly until the process become smooth, understood and accepted by companies in proper 
manner among all the workers, management and supervisor (Davis, 2011). 

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