Title: Improving workplace by using 5'S tool - a typical application of sorting method

Authors: Syed Anwarul Islam; Sheikh Muktadir Hossain; Mazharul Hassan; Nilufa Yeasmin

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Kazla, Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh ' Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh ' Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology, Mirpur-12, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract: 5'S is one of the most widely adopted techniques from the lean manufacturing toolbox. Along with standard work and total productive maintenance, 5'S is considered a 'foundational' lean concept, as it establishes the operational stability required for making and sustaining continuous improvements. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on 5'S and to present an overview of 5'S implementation practices adopted by the manufacturing organisations. It also highlights those opportunities (problems) for 5'S implementation. After identifying the problems, research team tried to solve this problem by using 5'S tools to improve productivity of selected furniture manufacturing factory and compare between two scenarios (before implementing 5'S and after implementing 5'S).

Keywords: 5S; lean manufacturing; TPM; total productive maintenance; productivity improvement; micro motion study; operations management; workplace improvement; sorting methods; continuous improvement; kaizen; literature review; manufacturing industry; furniture manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2015.072315

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2015 Vol.22 No.3, pp.323 - 335

Received: 28 Jun 2014
Accepted: 04 Jul 2014
Published online: 09 Oct 2015 *

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