5S
5S is a workplace-organisation method — Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardise, Sustain — that creates a clean, ordered, efficient workspace. It is a foundational lean practice that underpins safety, quality and the visual management other improvements rely on.
The five Japanese-derived steps (seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, shitsuke) remove clutter, give everything a place, keep the area clean, standardise the result and sustain it through discipline and audits. 5S is usually the first lean practice a plant adopts because an organised, visual workplace makes waste, abnormalities and developing faults obvious — a precondition for reliability and continuous improvement.
Related terms
Lean Manufacturing · Kaizen · TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)
Where this applies
Implementing 5S workplace organisation · Rolling out autonomous maintenance