The name 5S comes from the first letters of the five Japanese terms:
l Seiri – Organization
l Seiton - Neatness
l Seiso - Cleaning
l Seiketsu - Standardization
l Shitsuke - Discipline
The focus of 5S activity is to organize the workplace in order to make it a more productive, cleaner, safer and orderly work environment.
Maintaining and improving 5S is part of every Gemba Kaizen Workshop. Many Lean systems and Kaizen tools include 5S as a key component. Examples include:
l TPM
l Set up Reduction (SMED)
l Office Kaizen
l Kanban
l Just in Time Production
l Visual Management
The foundation of a 5S culture is essential to building a Lean Enterprise. The 5S’s are the barometer telling you how well a company is managed and a lodestone telling you how total worker participation is. The adoption of these 5S’s companywide can yield tremendous results – eliminating wastes, preventing accidents, reducing downtime, enhancing team development & operational control of processes, and creating healthier corporate climate. | 
