5S in a Machine Shop: The Five Steps, One Step at a Time

How do you do 5S in a machine shop?

Do the five steps in order, one area at a time: sort out what is not needed, give everything a fixed place, clean the machine while checking it, write down and show the standard, and keep it going with a daily routine and a monthly audit. The operators who work in the area should do it.

Many owners have seen a 5S drive. The shop is cleaned, the floor is painted, the walls look new. A visitor is impressed. Three months later the old clutter is back.

That happens when 5S is treated as a cleaning campaign. It is not. It is a way of working in which a missing tool, a leaking hose or a wrong part is seen in seconds.

What are the five S?

Step 1: Sort. What can leave the shop?

A machine shop that has never been sorted has broken tools lying next to good ones, old fixtures for jobs that stopped years ago, and scrap mixed with good material.

Put every item in one of four groups:

• Not needed at all: broken inserts, worn cutters, bar ends. Scrap them.
• Needed, but not now: fixtures for a job next quarter. Store them away from the machine.
• Needed, but not here: another department's tools. Send them back.
• Needed, but not so much: twenty spanners at a machine where five are used. Keep five.

When you are not sure, use a red tag. Write the date, item, reason and who tagged it. Move the item to a marked red tag area. The department head decides within about 30 days: discard, move, repair or return. If nobody asks for it, it goes.

Do not scold anyone for what you find. The waste was always there. Now you can see it.

Step 2: Set in order. Where does each thing live?

Give each item a marked place near where it is used. Check three things for every item: can you see it, can you take it out easily, and can you put it back in the same place?

Keep things by how often they are used:

Keep heavy items low, and the most-used tools between shoulder and waist. Use shadow boards, so an empty outline shows what is missing. Mark gangways and work areas on the floor, and use the same colour for the same meaning in every area.

Here is an example. An operator walked to the tool room about eight times a shift, around 25 minutes in all. A shadow board and a marked tool trolley at the machine cut the trips to one a shift.

Step 3: Shine. Clean it, look at it, fix it

Shine is not the sweeper's job. The operator cleans his own machine every day. Dirt hides problems: an oil leak under chips, a loose bolt under dust.

Think of it as three parts: clean, look, fix. While cleaning, look for leaks, loose bolts, noise and heat. Fix small problems at once and report big ones.

Make the last five minutes of every shift the cleaning time. The next shift starts clean. Then go one step further and stop the dirt at its source. If coolant splashes onto the floor every day, fit a splash guard instead of mopping it every day.

Step 4: Standardise. How do we keep it this way?

Without a written standard, each shift keeps the area its own way. Write one short checklist for each area: what is to be done, by whom and how often.

• Fix a photo of the area in its correct state at the area. Anyone can compare.
• Name a zone leader, a deputy and an auditor from another zone for each area.
• Keep it short. A one-page note with a photo, taught at the machine in ten minutes, works better than a long document in a file.

Step 5: Sustain. Why does 5S fade?

Sustain is the hardest step. It is about behaviour, not cleaning.

• A daily five minutes beats a big yearly drive.
• A monthly audit with a score for every zone, shown on the board.
• Before and after photos on display.
• Recognition for the best-kept area each month.
• Leaders go first. The owner and managers walk the floor and keep their own offices in order.

5S is not a cleaning drive for the visitor. It is a daily habit that makes problems visible.

Mistakes to avoid

• Throwing things away in a hurry. Use the red tag area and decide properly.
• Sorting once. New clutter comes in every week.
• Hiding clutter in cupboards. That is not sorting.
• Skipping the operator. He knows what is used and what is not.
• Labels without discipline. A label helps only when things go back to it.

How to start in your plant

1. Choose one area, such as one bay with three machines.
2. Take a photo of it from a fixed spot.
3. Hold a red tag day with the operators. Decide on every tag within 30 days.
4. Fix places, shadow boards and floor lines. Take an "after" photo from the same spot.
5. Begin the five-minute shift-end cleaning.
6. Appoint a zone leader and score the area monthly. Then move to the next bay.