5S is a basic lifestyle act

5S is a basic lifestyle act. Let us consider a daily task of making coffee, whether this is at home or at our work places. The requirements will be the cup, spoon, hot water, coffee, sugar or sweetener and milk or creamer. There are few scenarios that surround this process. While making coffee, Is there tea and the different types of tea with the coffee ingredients. Do you have to check which container has what ingredient or can you simply just open and the right container is available? Do you have preferences over white sugar or brown sugar, or the sweetener? Can you reach the one you need immediately? Oh No! What happens if the Cup is not clean? If not then it will need to be washed or rinsed. This is now an added task, maybe you are the type where hot tap water will not suffice, then you may have to find dishwashing liquid or soap. If you were the only person making the coffee you could have 5S’ed everything in order of what you need and when. Or it could be your version of 5S is to simply buy a cup of coffee.

Playing the 5S Game Overview - Part 2

The 5th and 6th scenario go together and the intention is to illustrate the difference in finding issues in the 2 scenarios. The first scenario is a replica of the chaos first experienced by player with 2 Alphabets removed. The player needs to find the missing Alphabets as quick as possible. Here there is a shift countdown and the timeout set, so that the player does not go on forever.

In the 6th scenario the payer sees the Set, Standardised and Sequential with the same two Alphabets removed. This time it should be an extremely quick exercise to spot the missing Alphabets.

Playing the 5S Game Overview

Playing the 5S Game will illustrate different phases of doing the same task. In this version the player must select the Alphabets in order A, B, C till Z within the 20 second time period. In the first scenario it is difficult as the player will have to search for the Alphabets. Unlikely that any player will get it right. The game does not check the sequence of if other Characters are selected. The reason is the primary intention is to illustrate the chaos.
In the 2nd scenario the characters that are not required are removed. Thus only the Alphabets A-Z (In CAPS) is selectable. These sorts out the chaos to a certain extent. The player should be able to select more Alphabets in this round. Though they would still have to search. In both of these first 2 scenarios the player will have a lot of motion in looking for the Alphabets. In Lean and the 7 wastes , one of the wastes is waste caused by motion.
In the 3rd scenario the player is guided that each Alphabet is within a grid, beginning at the bottom left and going upwards and then back to the bottom middle, etc. The player should be able to select more Alphabets as the Waste of motion is reduced and there is a set path to follow.
In the 4th scenario the player sees the Alphabets in a Set, Standardised and Sequential order and should easily accomplish the task. The player should be able to finish before the 20 seconds are up.

A basic recap of 5S from http://www.isixsigma.com/

5S is the Japanese concept for house keeping

• 1.) Sort (Seiri)
• 2.) Straighten (Seiton)
• 3.) Shine (Seiso)
• 4.) Standardize (Seiketsu)
• 5.) Sustain (Shitsuke)

We have developed the Web Version of the 5S Numbers Game. We have used Alphabets (Just to be a bit different), but it is the same game intended to be used as an educational tool for learning 5S.