5S

The poster was among the several posters at guard house wall at Occupational Safety and Health Center in Diliman, Quezon City. It sums up the 5S methdology.

I thought about 5S after almost 10 years as I cringed while my someone say my cluttered computer-on-wheels desk is "very unprofessional". JCAHO is coming any day and the concern was to get an outstanding rating. I am reminded of how Chris Cruz used to put it: simplistic!

I have the impression that 5S is taken more seriously than Japanese cars in workplaces in the Philippines. Marieta Javier, who was a colleague at the Bureau of Women and Young Workers, used to say "I will 5S my desk" instead of saying "I will clean my desk". When she goes home from work, she also 5S her house. 

5S, as the Japanese initially conceptualized, is more than cleaning and tidying up. It's the "professional" way  of cleaning and tidying up. You need not say "seiri" because you don't know what seiri means. "Seiri" is a Japanese word for Sort, the first of the 5S. The idea is to sort out unnecessary items in the workplace and discard them. You don't need the framed pictures of your children on your desk top. 

"Seiton" is another Japanese word that means Systematize in easy to understand terms. To systematize in the 5S methodology means arranging necessary items in good order so they can easily be selected or reached for use.