5S Your Life – Standardize

 Define a system to maintain 1S, 2S and 3S

‘Seiketsu,’ or Japanese for “standardizing,” is the fourth step in the 5S process. Now that you know what you need, where to store it and how to maintain it, make it official! This stage builds on the idea of sharing best practices, auditing and checking in on 5S efforts with regularity. By standardizing the approach to 5S, organizational efforts are sustained in the long run by everyone, everywhere.

The step standardize looks forward to finding the best process for each particular task, so that sort, store and shine are done consistently by everyone. In this step, you define and communicate routines that help everyone involved work synchronized. What needs to be done, by whom (owner), how (procedure), when (schedule) and why (purpose).

Humans tend to personalize things. “This is my tool, so I know where and how to store it.” Still, when you work within an organization, you need to put first the needs of the team. It is what I call “We culture” vs. a “Me culture.”  The first three 5S steps were about individual self-organization, while in the 4^th S, you put all the pieces together to self-organize the team and speak in terms of “we,” not just “me”.

During this phase, there will be responsibilities as an individual, and responsibilities working in a team:

• Develop visual aids and standards to help to keep the workplace organized and clean with clear directions
• Learn to work using procedures, not only yours but also the ones of the places you go to
• Learn to prepare, write, read and improve procedures
• Learn the importance of respecting the rules everywhere you are
• Understand the importance of each of the functions in your organization. When you don’t commit to your duty, you are impacting others.

The three microsteps to implement the standardize phase are:

1. Define the rules for self-organization
2. Make the rules visible and available
3. Practice and communicate continuously