Benefits of 5S

5S is more than a simple housekeeping initiative. 5S is a five-step process that transforms a traditional work site into a visual factory and lays the foundation for a Lean Enterprise System. It can benefit any organization and brings unique benefits to the food and beverage industry.

What is 5S?

• Sort: Clear out, clean up, and identify needs for the immediate workspace.
• Set in Order: Organize items, designate storage locations and define procedures for use.
• Shine: Clean and maintain the areas appearance and establish preventative maintenance.
• Standardize: Set roles and responsibilities to ensure efficient process improvement.
• Sustain: Maintain and reinforce involvement in achieving goals.

What are the benefits of 5S to the Food Industry?

HACCP: 5S benefits your HACCP program by supporting the segregation of your Color Code System and helping control high-risk items

Quality: Improved discipline and visual management will improve your Quality by reducing variability in your process. Improved organization will reduce the risk of recalls or the misuse of chemicals.

Cross Contamination: 5S can help create a process that reduces the risks of cross-contamination between areas, surfaces, allergens, and other cross-contamination risks.

Foreign Object Risk: 5S can greatly reduce the risks of foreign particle contamination caused by tools, or other items used in and around production by ensuring they are in their place and not at risk of getting into the product.

Audit Ready: 5S helps you stay audit-ready, knowing everything is always in place.

Color Coded Tools: 5S can help you get a longer life out of your tools because they are not stored in places they shouldn’t be where they could be damaged or contaminated forcing them to have to be replaced.

Impressive to Customers and Auditors: Your plant visitors will immediately see that you are going above and beyond in your food safety efforts.

Safety: In the food industry, cleaning up during production is especially needed. If employees don’t have the tools, they need right there to do it, dirt and clutter can increase the risks of accidents. 5S certainly can help you achieve the organization needed for a safe workplace.

Efficiency and Waste Reduction: 5S will make waste more obvious allowing you to become more efficient. Change-over times will improve.

Time: Your team members will spend less time finding and retrieving tools and change parts through 5S. This will give them more time to perform value-added tasks.

Accountability: Having a place for everything allows easier tracking of items on the production floor making them traceable to where they should be.

Team Buy-In: Your team members will become more engaged as they help establish and maintain the 5S Standards. They will be excited by the positive change and by seeing that they can make a difference. This will turn into ownership.

How to visually help implement the 5S Initiative:

Shadow Boards! A custom-made shadow board is a very key item in bringing 5S to reality with color-coded tool shadows, PPE safety boards, and custom signs throughout your food processing plant, you will increase organization and efficiency while boosting hygiene standards. Custom shadow boards can be ordered through your sales rep here at Amerisan.