5-S and Value Stream

Mapping

Douglas M. Stewart, Ph.D.

Anderson Schools of Management
University of New Mexico
5-S
 Creates a clean, ordered and disciplined work
environment.
 The 5 S are:
 Seiri
 Seiton
 Seiso
 Seiketsu
 Shitsuke
 …But for those of us who don’t speak
Japanese…
…Seriously, the 5 S are
 Sort
 Separate and remove clutter and items unneeded in the workspace.
 Extraneous items impede the flow of work.
 Set in Order
 Organize what is left to minimize movement and make things clear.
 Shine (and inspect)
 Clean area, storage, equipment, etc. and inspect for warning signs of
breakdowns.
 Standardize
 Set up an area with 5-S supplies (cleaning supplies, labels, colored
tape, other organizational items) and schedule time and responsibility
for restoring work area to its proper condition regularly.
 Sustain
 Audit area regularly, expand 5-S to other areas.
Before and After 5-S
Why 5-S
 It is a foundation for Lean
 Reduces waste
 Less searching
 Decreased walking and motion
 Reduced downtime
 Fewer accidents
 Fewer mistakes
 Improved flow
 Better use of space
 Precursor to other tools
 Visual inventory replenishment
 Standardized work
 Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM)
 Setup reduction
 Mistake-proofing
…the problem…
 Many companies don’t understand it, or only
do the first 3.
Value Stream Mapping
 A means of understanding where you are
adding value and how to do so more
effectively.
 A paper and pencil tool to help you visualize
and understand the flow of material and
information as a product or customer makes
its way through your system.
To learn more see: Learning to See by Rother and Shook, The Lean
Enterprise Institute, 2003.
Why Value Stream Mapping?
 Visualize the whole process
 See the sources of waste
 Provides a common language for
improvement
 Makes decisions about flow apparent
 Ties together lean techniques
 Forms the basis of an improvement plan
 Shows linkage between information and
material flows
How to begin…
 Start with a single product family.
 Customers only care about their specific
product.
 Having all product flows on a single map is too
complicated.
 Be specific – how many finished part numbers
in family, how much is demanded, and how
often.
Selecting a Product Family
 If mix is complicated you can crease a matrix:

Assembly Steps and Equipment

P 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R A X X X X X
O B X X X X X X
D C X X X X X X
U D X X X X X
C E X X X X X
T F X X X X X
S G X X X X X
Select a Value Stream Manager
 Nobody is usually responsible for the entire
value stream.
 Crossing organizational boundaries
 Need someone who reports to top manager
at your site for power necessary for change
Don’t…
 Split the task up among area managers and
hope to put it all together at the end.
 Map your organization, map the flow of
products or customers.
 Start too big or too small, begin at the door to
door level.
 Ignore the flow of information
Draw the Current State Map
 Always collect information while walking the
actual process.
 Begin with a quick door-to-door walk.
 Begin with shipping and work upstream.
 Bring your stopwatch and do not rely on
information that you do not personally obtain.
 Map the whole value stream yourself
 Always draw by hand and in pencil (no
computers)
Value Stream Mapping Symbols
VSM Exercise – Acme Stamping
Guidelines for the Lean Value Stream
 Produce to your takt time
 Develop continuous flow wherever possible
 Use Supermarkets to control production where
continuous flow does not extend upstream
 Try to send the customer schedule to only one
production process
 Level the production mix
 Level the production volume
 Develop the ability to make every part every day (or
faster) upstream of the pacemaker process.
Produce to your takt time
 To synchronize production at the pacemaker process
with sales.

available working time per day

takt time 
customer demand rate per day
Develop continuous flow wherever
possible
 This merges all processes lead times and
downtimes
 May want to start with some pull/FIFO then
become more continuous as reliability
improves
 May not be possible due to
 Batching (e.g. stamping)
 Shipping from suppliers
 Process is too unreliable
Use supermarkets (kanbans)
 to control production where continuous flow
does not extend upstream.
Try to send the customer schedule to
only one production process
 The pacemaker process
 The most downstream continuous flow
process.
 No supermarkets downstream of pacemaker.
Pacemaker Process
Level the production volume

 Create an initial pull by releasing and

withdrawing small consistent elements of
work at the pacemaker process.
 Called: Pitch = Takt time * pack size
 Example: If takt time = 30 seconds, and pack
size = 20 pieces, then pitch = 10 minutes
 Every 10 minutes
 Give the pacemaker instructions to produce one
pack quantity
 Take away one finished quantity
Example of Paced Withdrawal
Level the production mix

 Distribute the production of different products

evenly over time at the pacemaker process.
 Load leveling box
 “Every part every day”
 Develop the ability to make every part every day
(or faster) upstream of the pacemaker process.

run time 
daily requiremen t * cycle time 
uptime%
available time per day  run time  time left for changeover s
time left for changeover s
number of changeover s 
changeover time
Drawing the Future State
 What is the takt time?
 Will you build to a finished goods supermarket or
directly to shipping?
 Where can you use continuous flow processing?
 Where will you need to use supermarket pull
systems?
 At what single point in the production chain (the
pacemaker process) will you schedule production?
 How will you level the production mix?
 What increment of work will you consistently release?
 What process improvements will be necessary to
make this work?
Draw the future state of Acme