1.4 INTRODUCTION TO 5S
Japan despite being a small country with 0.3% landmass and 2.3% of population, has still
emerged as the leader of manufacturing industries in the world due to its management tools and
techniques (Hitomi, 2004). The Japanese manufacturing industries such as Honda, Toyota and
Mitsubishi come in the list of top positions worldwide. It is a notable thing that Japanese not only
achieve high level of productivity and profitability at home, but also gain success in the
company’s operating overseas (Hitomi, 2004). Japan possesses limited amount of natural
resources such as oil and coal. In spite of this, the most plentiful resource responsible for its
competitive edge, is its people.
From several hundred years, the principles of Shintoism, Buddhism and Confucianism
were responsible for the embedment of philosophical concept of 5S in Japanese society (De
Mente, 1994). The principle ‘Shintoism’ emphasizes on ‘cleanliness’, ‘Confucianism’
emphasizes on ‘orderliness’ and ‘Buddhism’ emphasizes on deriving spiritual fortitude from
‘self-discipline’. Japan has been traditionally emphatic on cooperation, advocating the values of
trust, self-restraint, team working and organizational commitment. The formations of the
aforesaid values were contributed by the principles of Shintoism, Buddhism and Confucianism in
Japan (Watsuji, 1952). During 1989-1991’s, Takasi Osada was the first person who developed
the framework of 5S based on five pillars in Japanese acronym for Seiri (organization), Setion
(neatness), Sesio (cleaning), Seiketsu (standardization) and Shitsuke (discipline).
5S philosophy was developed in Japan and was formally introduced at the end of the
1960s, while the major framework for understanding and applying 5S were proposed by Osada
(1991) and Hirano (1995). Firstly, 5S was implemented at Toyota Motor Corporation as part of
their production system, namely Toyota Production System (TPS). Osada (1991) has introduced
5S as a methodology for building and realizing quality environment in an organization. Figure 1
depicts the Osada’s view of the 5S concept (Osada, 1989, 1991).
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