Maintaining 5S once the initial excitement of its introduction is over and the easy gains have been achieved is often a challenging task. Therefore it is vital we introduce some standard work activities to ensure the environment we have worked so hard to create is not only maintained but built upon. If we can do this using an approach which maximises staff engagement and creates ownership and accountability of each work area then we will be on our way to creating a sustainable 5S environment.
Using Tee Cards is on of the best methods we have come across to achieve this. Used as part of the third S (Shine) activity we have found this form of standard work is relatively easy to introduce. The top tip to making this approach work for your organisation is to involve all of the members of staff in each work area where it is to be introduced. Don’t just introduce a list of tasks to each area to maintain the environment without any staff involvement. Explain what you are trying to achieve to the staff in each area and ask for suggestions for a set of daily, weekly and monthly tasks that would need to be completed by staff working in the area to ensure the area is always capable of working at its optimum.
Typically daily tasks include activities such as emptying bins, re-stocking process consumables, cleaning sensors, topping up lubricants, replenishing kanban parts ( if required), replenishing perishable tooling and spares, cleaning machine vision panels, sweeping around machines etc. Weekly and monthly tasks would tend to be more ‘wear and tear’ actions and some training may need to take place to ensure competency. Agree a time period for completing each set of tasks. For instance the daily tasks should take no more than 10-15 minutes per day or shift, whereas the weekly and monthly ones may take slightly longer depending upon the environment.
Each task is added to visual board on a red/green Tee Card and identified as either a daily, weekly or monthly task. The Tee card is added to the board with the red face of the card showing. Agree who is responsible for completing each task and as the tasks are completed the cards are turned around so the green face of the card is showing. Thus at a glance it is possible for the Team Leader of the area to see which tasks have been completed and which ones are still outstanding. This is a very visual lean tool for helping to maintain 5S.