Order (seiton): place materials, tools and/or necessary elements

It consists of establishing the way in which the necessary materials should be located and identified, so that it is easy and quick to find, use and replace them.

Visual management methods can be used to facilitate order, identifying the elements and places in the area. The motto (leitmotif) “a place for everything, and everything in its place” is common in this task. At this stage the aim is to organize the workspace in order to avoid both time and energy losses.

Criteria for ordering:

Cleanliness (seisō): removing dirt

Once the workspace is clear (seiri) and organized (seiton), it is much easier to clean it (seisō). It consists of identifying and eliminating sources of dirt, and taking the necessary actions to ensure that they do not reappear, ensuring that all media are always in perfect operational condition. Failure to clean can have many consequences, even causing anomalies or malfunctioning of machinery.

Cleaning criteria:

Standardization (seiketsu): signaling anomalies

It consists of detecting irregular or anomalous situations, through simple and visible rules for everyone. Although the previous stages of 5S can only be applied occasionally, in this stage (seiketsu) standards are created that remind us that order and cleanliness must be maintained every day.

To achieve this, the following rules are helpful:.

Maintaining discipline (shitsuke): keep improving

This stage aims to work permanently in accordance with the established standards, checking the monitoring of the 5S system and developing continuous improvement actions, closing the PDCA cycle. If this stage is applied without the necessary rigor, the 5S system loses its effectiveness.

Establishes rigorous control of the application of the system. After carrying out this control, comparing the results obtained with the established standards and objectives, the conclusions are documented and, if necessary, the processes and standards are modified to achieve the objectives.

Through this stage, the aim is to obtain continuous and reliable verification of the application of the 5S method and the support of the personnel involved, without forgetting that the method is a means, not an end in itself.

Order (seiton): place materials, tools and/or necessary elements

It consists of establishing the way in which the necessary materials should be located and identified, so that it is easy and quick to find, use and replace them.

Visual management methods can be used to facilitate order, identifying the elements and places in the area. The motto (leitmotif) “a place for everything, and everything in its place” is common in this task. At this stage the aim is to organize the workspace in order to avoid both time and energy losses.

Criteria for ordering:

Cleanliness (seisō): removing dirt

Once the workspace is clear (seiri) and organized (seiton), it is much easier to clean it (seisō). It consists of identifying and eliminating sources of dirt, and taking the necessary actions to ensure that they do not reappear, ensuring that all media are always in perfect operational condition. Failure to clean can have many consequences, even causing anomalies or malfunctioning of machinery.

Cleaning criteria:

Standardization (seiketsu): signaling anomalies

It consists of detecting irregular or anomalous situations, through simple and visible rules for everyone. Although the previous stages of 5S can only be applied occasionally, in this stage (seiketsu) standards are created that remind us that order and cleanliness must be maintained every day.

To achieve this, the following rules are helpful:.

Maintaining discipline (shitsuke): keep improving

This stage aims to work permanently in accordance with the established standards, checking the monitoring of the 5S system and developing continuous improvement actions, closing the PDCA cycle. If this stage is applied without the necessary rigor, the 5S system loses its effectiveness.

Establishes rigorous control of the application of the system. After carrying out this control, comparing the results obtained with the established standards and objectives, the conclusions are documented and, if necessary, the processes and standards are modified to achieve the objectives.

Through this stage, the aim is to obtain continuous and reliable verification of the application of the 5S method and the support of the personnel involved, without forgetting that the method is a means, not an end in itself.