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Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
GO-ESU
5S
"Five S"
The Japanese word for the number 5 is go/五. Esu is simply the Japanese way of pronouncing the English letter “S”.
A neat, orderly manufacturing facility is one of the key pillars of kaizen (カイゼン) and the Toyota Production System (TPS). Japanese companies use the concept of 5S to ensure that neatness and orderliness are practiced in a systematic way. If you spend any time in the Japanese business world, you will almost certainly encounter this concept—especially if your job involves anything in a manufacturing sector.
5S is an acronym for five Japanese words: seiri (整理), seiton (整頓), seisō (清掃), seiketsu (清潔), and shitsuke (躾). Each “S” represents an important aspect of workplace housekeeping.
seiri (整理) = “tidiness; consolidation” / If you look at all the “stuff” in your immediate surroundings, you will probably find that much of it goes unused most of the time. These items only take up space and get in your way, thereby decreasing your productivity.
The same is true in the workplace. Tools, materials, and other items that are used infrequently—or not at all—can interfere with necessary activities. Seiri is the practice of sorting through these items, and keeping only the ones that are essential. Non-essential items are either stowed in storage facilities or discarded. This reduces clutter in the workplace, and also eliminates some safety hazards. A cluttered workplace has many things to trip over and bump into.
seiton (整頓) = “orderliness”: After you have consolidated all the items and materials in the workplace, you must then arrange them so that they can be easily accessed. The principle of seiton is often summed up with the phrase, “a place for everything, and everything in its place.”
seisō (清掃) = “cleanliness”: I can still clearly remember my first impression upon entering the Honda Motor Company assembly plant in East Liberty, Ohio. I had been in other manufacturing facilities before, and I was repelled by their grimy interiors. But East Liberty was different. Every surface seemed to be polished and gleaming. There was no debris anywhere. You could have eaten off of the floors. (Well, you probably wouldn’t have wanted to, but you could have.)
Honda’s East Liberty plant is very clean even for a Japanese facility, but most Japanese companies are obsessive about the practice of seisō. Seisō is a daily ritual; and work areas are habitually cleaned at the end of each shift.
seiketsu (清潔) = “purity”: Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”—but he never worked for Honda or Toyota. On the contrary, Japanese companies regard standardization (a formalized version of consistency) as a key to their success. Standardized housekeeping rules enable everyone to know what practices they should follow, and their areas of responsibility. These rules are meticulously documented, and then posted in work areas where everyone can see them.
shitsuke (躾) = “discipline”: If you have ever worked on any long-term self-improvement initiative, you know that the tendency to backslide is one of the greatest threats to success. This is where discipline comes in. A sustained sense of discipline ensures that workplace housekeeping rules will be sustained on a daily basis over weeks, months, and years.