Five S - Applications and Education Program for Shipyards, Project Results for the NSRP Project
Abstract
The term "Five S" originated in Japan. The Japanese discovered that a key element of their Total Quality movement was paying close attention to the state of the workplace itself. They developed a system to enhance the workplace defined by key words roughly translated as: Sorting, Simplifying, Systematic cleaning, Standardizing, and Sustaining. The purpose of this project was to create an incentive for U.S. yards to adopt a Five S culture and assist them in developing and maintaining that culture. The goals of the project were to show successful implementation of Five S at two US Shipyards and to use those implementations to develop an implementation guideline specific to shipyard operations. The project was highly successful. At Todd Pacific Shipyards, eight workshops were completed. These workshops showed returns of up to 30% reduction of cycle time of the targeted processes. The installations were sustained from the time of implementation to present. The shipyard used the success of these programs as the basis for a management decision to vastly increase the scope of the implementation. Publication of the guidelines, technical reports and industry workshops generated a high level of interest on the part of other shipyards.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 17, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA447868