Order and cleanliness: the 5S method

In many warehouses a "big clean-up" is held once or twice a year: everyone tidies up, the warehouse gleams for a week, and then everything returns to how it was. The 5S method works the other way round: it turns order from an event into a daily habit. It began in Japanese manufacturing but suits a warehouse especially well, because in a warehouse most time goes on looking for things. The method has five words, and each one is a single simple step.

The five steps

1. Sort

Remove what is not needed from the workplace. The red tag method is handy here: stick a red tag on every item whose owner is unknown or whose usefulness is doubtful, write the date on it and the question "why is this here". Take such items to a separate place (the red zone) and wait thirty days. If nobody has asked for it in that time, it has to be sold, returned or disposed of. A warehouse usually turns up broken pallets, old cardboard, a scanner that does not work, leftover samples and stock that "might come in useful".

2. Set in order

Every item should have its place and every place its name. Put labels on the racking, mark outlines on the floor for the trolley and the pallet truck, and designate spots for tools (tape, knife, scanner, film): with a shadow board each tool has its outline drawn, so a missing one shows at once. Keep what is used most within easy reach. The test: can a new employee find a requested item in thirty seconds?

3. Shine

Cleaning is not only for cleanliness but for inspection. When you sweep, you find an oil leak, a cracked floor, a loosened bolt, a bent rack upright or a lamp that is out. Everyone cleans their own zone; do not hand this job only to a cleaner. Ten minutes at the end of the shift is enough. Find the source of the dirt (dust, spills, a roof leak) and remove it, otherwise the same work is repeated every day.

4. Standardise

Turn what was achieved in the first three steps into a rule. Photograph the "correct" state of each zone, hang it up as a reference photo and write a short checklist beside it. Label formats, colours and location codes should be uniform. A standard should not exceed one A4 sheet, or nobody will read it.

5. Sustain

This is the hardest step: if the habit does not take hold, everything fades within two weeks. Once a week run a short five-minute audit: ten questions, each scored from 1 to 5, with the result posted on the zone's wall. The manager should be audited too, otherwise staff will not take it seriously. When a shortcoming recurs, start with finding the cause, not with finding someone to blame.

What it saves

Searching for things is an invisible loss. For example, if a picker looks for something 20 times a day and spends two minutes each time, that is 40 minutes, about 8 percent of an eight-hour shift. For ten pickers it is 400 minutes a day, almost a whole employee's shift. Once order is established, that time returns to picking and there is no need to hire an extra person. Do the sum yourself: ask pickers to note the time spent searching for a week, and the result is often bigger than expected.

Order also reduces errors: where places are labelled, goods do not get mixed up, on a clean rack damage is noticed in time, and an aisle free of cardboard is safe to walk.

Where to start

Do not start with everything at once. Choose one zone, for example the packing table or one aisle, and give it two to three weeks. Take photographs before and after: "before and after" pictures are what convince staff best. In the first week sort and set in order, in the second clean, in the third standardise, in the fourth hold the first audit. Once there is a result, move on to the next zone.

Common mistakes are limiting yourself to a one-off "festive clean-up", rolling it out without the manager's involvement, tidying for looks (order with no purpose) and blaming employees.

Conclusion

5S is not expensive but needs steady attention: sort, set in order, shine, standardise, sustain. Through its labelling service, SkladKontrol prepares and applies barcode and QR labels for racking and goods, which reinforces the "set in order" step.