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Workers in occupational health and safety in a manufacturing environment may find themselves having to adopt lean production techniques, both within their OH department and in the company as a whole. A commonly used tool is the "5S''method; Sian Edwards explains what it is and how it works.
Occupational health is unique among nursing and medical specialties for many reasons, not least because of the need for OH professionals to understand both the world of work and business. Health and Safety Executive figures show that manufacturing accounts for about 10% of the British workforce (2013/14); consequently with current employment standing at 30.8 million (Office for National Statistics (ONS), December 2014), the manufacturing workforce equates to three million workers across the UK.
What is 5S?
Manufacturing companies wishing to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability have a variety of tools available to them, commonly referred to as "lean production". 5S is a commonly used tool for organising workplaces and improving efficiency and productivity. It was developed in Japan as a way to engage front-line process teams in daily improvement. The Ss are the English equivalents of five Japanese words that explain the phases of the method.
In his book on lean production "Lean production simplified" (2007), Pascal Dennis describes a good 5S condition - in other words, a clean, well-ordered workplace that talks to you - as the foundation of improvement. 5S is also strongly safety focused. Some companies will even add an extra S for safety (known as 5S+1 or 6S) but this is not strictly necessary and, in fact, may even detract from the safety benefits of the other five steps. The method directly affects a number or areas for which OH and safety practitioners share responsibility, including the identification of danger areas, personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements and what needs to be cleaned and inspected.
Benefits of 5S
The purported benefits of 5S include: increased safety; improved work environment; increased ownership and sense of pride (for employees engaged in the 5S process); easier maintenance; improved quality through greater visibility of mistakes and standardised work; and improved performance through reduced set-up times, reduced breakdowns and increased productivity.
Risks of 5S
The biggest risk is 5S running out of steam during the early stages and...