Abstract:

The 5S is a Japanese management concept first introduced by Takashi Osada of the Toyota company for the management and organization of the work place. 5S is short for: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. Thus, 5S considers the following aspects: (i) separate the unnecessary, (ii) place the necessary, (iii) suppress the dirtiness, (iv) signal the irregularities and (v) continue improving.

Implementing these criteria in the case of an Inorganic Chemistry teaching laboratory implies the following steps:

Separation of the unnecessary involves the removal from the lab of all the unnecessary material for carrying out the experimental work. Place the necessary consists of placing all material required for the practicals (chemical products, glassware, …, chemical databases) in an appropriate place of the laboratory, marking their location by means of labels. Suppress the dirtiness, consists of maintaining the laboratory tidy and clean, taking actions such as placing the broken glass material in an appropriate containers, make a separation of the glass material, the hooks for gloves and pliers, … Signal the irregularities has the purpose of letting the lab technician know, in a short and accurate way, all the irregularities happened during the course of the experiments; for that purpose, an irregularity form is used, where the problems originated are listed with the date when the problem come out and, also, with the date when it is get to be solved. Finally, continue improving, implies keeping up the progress achieved by the previous stages, for which periodic audits are performed in order to accomplish the continuous improvement of the 5S.

The scheduling and frequency of the audits is made in base of: (i) the complexity of the task, (ii) the volume of the elements flux, (iii) the number of available personnel, (iv) the nature and size of the elements, (v) dirtiness/cleanness of the operations, (vi) significant changes in the installations, (vii) results of the previous audits, (viii) system maturity. At the beginning of the implementation of the 5S and depending on these circumstances, the audits will be semiannual in order not to affect the normal course of the laboratory practical classes. Afterwards, the frequency is decreased, until becoming annual.

The advantages of continuous improving by means of audits manifest themselves in: (i) the maintenance, with a minimal effort, of the achievements of the previous stages, (ii) data management (objectives, indicators,…), (iii) the fact that order and visual management habits are created, and (iv) a continuous improvement of the implemented system is achieved.
The implementation of the 5S in the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) is supervised by EUSKALIT, Basque Foundation for the Excellence.

Keywords:

Implementation of the 5S.