2. Straighten, Set in Order or Stabilize (Seiton)

In this step, you organize necessary items so that they are ready for use and easily accessible. “An important objective of seiton is to reduce the nonvalue-adding activity of searching for items, tools, and documents,” explains Torbjørn Netland in a September 2015 article in LMJ magazine headlined, “5S: We Are Doing It Wrong.” Netland is a professor and chair of production and operations management in the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich, a university in Zurich, Switzerland. A key to this step is creating well-marked storage places for every item so that anyone can locate it, use it and return it to its home. The step also emphasizes ergonomics—items should be placed so people don’t need to bend deeply, reach too high or take lots of steps to access them. In addition, this straightening step entails “visual control,” meaning that you’ll use diagrams, color-coding, floor markings, photographs and similar tools to convey information quickly and clearly.

As Creative Safety Supply, a Beaverton, Oregon-based provider of 5S-related products and other items for visual safety and efficiency, explains, “Visual markings in a storage area can help workers return materials to their proper locations, floor markings can create boundaries around work cells, and signs on the floor can point out the proper locations for trash and recycling bins. Using visual tools like these allows a business to communicate information to workers without needing to actually say anything.” Netland suggests undertaking the entire process outlined in Steps 1 and 2 every six months. Some companies might even benefit from doing Steps 1 and 2 monthly.

3. Shine (Seiso)

Step 3 requires that you clean workspaces daily and service equipment on a regular schedule to maintain efficiencies, reduce downtime and prevent injuries. It includes everything from regular housekeeping tasks like sweeping and dusting to performing more extensive maintenance of complex machinery. “A clean workspace is a productive workspace, and seiso literally means ‘to clean’ or ‘shine,’ ” Neuwirth says. “Clean the floors, the walls and the equipment and ensure all items are restored to their designated place. … This should be a part of your daily tasks and should not be postponed until idle time is available.” Netland adds: “Note that seiso is not just about brushing and washing, it aims to keep machines, equipment and facilities in a functional, visual and well-maintained state. Because ‘dust attracts dust’ and ‘litter stimulates littering,’ the absence of seiso quickly results in an impaired factory.” This step also involves other activities that help create the “visual factory,” Netland says, including “installing sky lights, painting the factory walls in light colors and replacing nontransparent covers with transparent ones.”

4. Standardize (Seiketsu)

This step involves creating procedures—using schedules, lists, charts and other methods—to regularly repeat the first three steps and keep processes running smoothly.

“Make the previous three Ss part of your standard procedures each day. Implement them with the help of signs, banners, shadow boards, tool holders, etc.,” Neuwirth says. “Make sure all workers understand their responsibilities and are empowered to perform all of the tasks.” Netland says this step also requires implementing permanent solutions to problems. “Examples of preventive seiketsu actions are installing ventilators,air filters, door mats, surface treatment of concrete floors, and so on,” he says. “The best preventive actions are those that eliminate the cause of unnecessary items, disorder and dirt altogether. For example, areas where dust enters the factory can be sealed permanently.” Regular audits help to ensure managers and employees maintain clean manufacturing discipline. As Juan Felipe Pons, a building engineer and lean construction trainer/consultant says in a March 2016 Lean Construction blog, “Measure, audit and act. Then measure, audit and act again and again.” He also offers a quick method for seeing if your process thus far has been a success: “The 30-seconds test is an easy way to make sure you have done a good job,” Felipe Pons says. “You should find any item, tool, information, document or person in less than 30 seconds.” To help with your 5S audits, Oskar Olofsson, a consultant specializing in lean and world-class manufacturing and founder of WCM Consulting AB in Vaxholm, Sweden, offers a sample audit on his website at

5. Sustain (Shitsuke)

In the final step, you commit to maintaining the standard you’ve set and to the process of continuous improvement. But Netland cautions against misunderstanding the meaning of “sustain” in this last step. “Shitsuke,” he says, is a “fundamental culture-building process that makes sure people see the purpose of and are motivated to act on the rules (of the other Ss). It fosters self-motivated discipline in the members of the organization. Shitsuke should manifest itself in deeds and habits, such as washing hands, using safety equipment and proper working clothes, respecting the work time, prioritizing the team over self, following standard operating procedures, and contributing with creativity to improve the standard.”