Organization and cleanliness go hand-in-hand. After eliminating the non-essential items (sort) and placing everything essential in its proper place (straighten), the next step is to clean everything (shine).
The shine step is essential to the success of a 5S program.
For 5S to work, it has to be easy to find what you need when you need it. The dirtier a facility is the less effective the organizational system will be.
To start the shine step, clean everything.
Scrub the floors, work surfaces, machines, storage containers, shelves, racks, tools and anything else in the facility. The cleaner the facility, the easier it will be to identify abnormal conditions.
Clean can improve the safety in a facility as dust and dirt can create health hazards.
Dirt also makes it harder to identify safety hazards. Remember, one of the goals of 5S is make problems jump out to anyone walking by.
Part of the shine process involves painting.
An effective 5S program will create a permanent change in a facility. Cleaning is performed so that the facility will be clean one day, and dirty again the next. The more you can create an environment that is easy to inspect and easy to maintain, the more effective the 5S program will be.
Some facilities paint the floor a light color so that dirt is easy to spot. Others paint utility services, such as pipes and conduit, to make it easy for maintenance to identify the right lines to work on.
The shine process can also involve installing new equipment such as better lighting. Good lighting makes it easier to spot items out of place and highlights direct and trash.
This is another opportunity to take “before” and “after” photographs of the area.
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