Sustain is the last phase of 5S and it is essential if you want to realize all of the benefits of 5S
long term. In review, the 5S's are Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain in that order.
We will focus on Sustain for the remainder of this presentation. Sustaining means to maintain or in
other words, once you have changed your circumstances for the better, you want to stay that way forever.
After all, when we want to get in shape, it takes a lot of hard work to get where we want to be. And
if we don't sustain our new healthy body, it will revert back to the way it was before we started.
Or possibly even worse. Let me share one more example of why sustaining is so important. Sustained
flight means remaining in the air and that is what we all desire when we fly. And when we do not
sustain flight, we crash and burn.
Similarly, if you do not sustain all of the efforts you have made
in implementing 5S, your company will revert back to the way things were before you started or maybe
worse. And it will be as if you have poured all of your hard earned money right down the drain.
Implementing standardize properly be will one of the best steps you can take in helping to make Sustain
a success because it can make every aspect of 5S a habit. Performing regular 5S audits in each area
will also help to continually enforce the expectations throughout the company. You are never finished
implementing 5S because it will always be a continuous improvement effort. Top management support is
absolutely crucial to sustaining 5S. Recognizing what the employees have done is important, But top
management must also provide the resources required to not only implement 5S, but to continuously
improve it and sustain it.
The benefits of sustain are simple, you get to enjoy all of the benefits
that 5S has to offer forever. We know sustaining the gains made during 5S implementation are not easy
and even some of the best companies fail to sustain 5S long term. so if you need help training
employees or implementing any aspect of 5S or Lean, call us today We love helping companies improve
to world class levels and don't forget, we're the guys who make this simple!
Dave is the Executive Vice President of Xtreme Lean Consulting.
He has over 42 years experience working with senior management teams in planning and implementing growth and profitability initiatives, with an emphasis on driving market share through efficiency and extraordinary customer service. Dave is a well organized professional with strong conceptual and practical skills. He has a proven ability to identify a company's market-driven improvement needs, and then use Lean/continuous improvement techniques to increase performance and earnings.
