By Chit Ko Pe

AS ONE of the manufacturing superpowers, Japan now stands as the third largest economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world. Not lingering on ruins and damages left behind after the defeat of World War II in 1945, Japan braced itself and stormed through to be where Japan is now.

It is the manufacturing sector that has evolved Japan’s economy to such an enormous extent. Indeed, “5S” is the driving force behind it. In the 1980s, the word “5S” originated and grew in Japan’s manufacturing sector. The service industry followed suit with 5S in the 1990s. 5S is formed by abbreviations of Japanese terms –Seri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke. They are correspondingly expressed in English maintaining such a word of 5S –Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize and Sustain respectively.

In a safety context, “5S” is widely known as a tool for housekeeping at a workplace. As things go messy, they become some kind of hazard on a site. With the 5S approach, hazards are easily identified and simultaneously wiped out in order to create a safe and clean workplace.

From the work safety perspective, each S is scrutinized as follows-

“Sort” means the segregation of good or necessary items from bad or unnecessary ones.

“Set” mentions the placement of good or necessary items with labels, numbers, and zones at respective storage areas while red-tagging bad or unnecessary ones in separate areas.

“Shine” indicates the cleaning and disinfection practice at the workplaces, as well as maintenance service of equipment and tools.

“Standardize” directs the routine up-keep of such actions mentioned in the above-mentioned 3S with everyone’s participation.

“Sustain” points to discipline, commitment and empowerment for further improvement through reporting and monitoring.

Not only does 5S create a good working environment with improved quality and safety, but it enhances the way we live as well. Let me refer to the Japanese terms – “Muri”, “Mura”, and “Muda”. Their definitions are- Muri: overstrain, irrationality or absurdity, Mura: jaggedness or inconsistency in action and thought, and Muda: wasteful or undervalued activity. These 3Ms make our lives hard and tough. To get rid of them, they said 5S is the tool to be used.

One needs to sort out his or her problem or difficulty, and shall try to understand why abnormal his or her behaviour or action is or why fruitless his or her efforts are. The parents, siblings, friends, or co-habitants in a society shall step in unless it is sorted out by himself or herself. It is when non-governmental organizations (NGOs) come into existence to lend a helping hand in fixing it. Their scopes vary from individual persons to groups to the whole of mankind.

The junks are put aside and a proper direction or programme is set to ensure it suits well with a person who deviates from a correct way. Parental guidance amends a misbehaved child to become an obedient one. A suitable environment such as a youth development and rehabilitation centre or youth addiction treatment and recovery programme is set to get the ones exposed to and integrated with it. These examples are a few to name.

There comes support in a form of moral encouragement or advice in kind or appropriate stuff or financial assistance to shine anyone being cared for or reformed without any hardship falling on. Incentives such as hand-out, stipends, humanitarian aid and so forth are to be offered to alleviate any suffering and maintain human dignity on all fronts.

Changes happen as time passed. Ineffective or unproductive ways are outdated and faded away. But innovative ways or good practices shall remain unchanged. It is evident that Covid-19 changes the way we live and we, in turn, adapt to new normal norms (3N) that we standardize anew for personal and workplace hygiene.

Not being complacent with what has been diligently done and successfully achieved, any bit of let-up can cause failure and setback. To sustain the whole process, a consistent review shall be done without any interruptions. Social dialogue is a means among others involving social partners from different backgrounds or within a group voicing comments and suggestions and exchanging opinions towards a better end. Before it turns out to be in a state of doom and gloom due to a lack of social dialogue, another means of administrative measure shall resort to refresher training courses or counselling sessions with a view to realigning distracted people back to the oriented path that is already proved productive and prolific.

5S is undeniably a tool for quality and safety improvement in production.

Rather, I prefer to remark – 5S is the way to success in life, too.