5S is a process of sorting and standardizing virtually any space – whether it is a kitchen pantry or a corporate office. As 5S experts, our team at Big Rocks Organizing is always looking for new ways to integrate 5S and Lean Office into our organizing projects.
In this article, we will show you how you can apply 5S in your own office.
There is a systematic approach to 5S, which is Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain, is what makes 5S unique.
If you follow these steps, you will be able to transform any space in your home or office into a highly organized area that will be easier for everyone in your space to navigate and keep tidy. 
In the end there is not a lot of difference in between a house and an office space when it comes to keeping a place tidy and organized. Whether it’s your teenager or your co-worker who borrows but doesn’t put back your newly organized office space will be so logical that everyone will know how it works. And the best part? Your productivity will benefit tenfold when you are working in an organized and fully functional space.
A Look at the Steps Involved in the 5S organizing system:
Step 1: Sort
Before getting started, be sure that you have an adequate staging area for sorting out your office items. It doesn’t have to be huge, but at least a 5’x 5’ area is best. Also, be sure to grab some bins for sorting, sticky notes, a sharpie and a few garbage bags for trash and recycling. Begin with one drawer or cabinet at a time, e.g., your top desk drawer. Pull everything out and place it in the staging area.
Next, you are going to go through each item and ask yourself these questions:
- Does this item have a function in the area? If not, does it have a function in another area? Where?
- How often is this item used?
- Will it really matter if I remove this item?
- How many are needed in the area? (ie: do you really need 73 pens in your top desk drawer?)
You are going to gather all the “like” items together. Also have a trash bag handy for everything that is trash and a container where you can put all the items that you want to give away. Sticky notes are handy for labelling piles of things that will go somewhere else. Now, the key is going to be to continue on to the next drawer or cabinet prior to putting things back.
The idea here is to consolidate all office items and to be purposeful about where things get to live. If you put things back before you complete the process, you will not be making decisions based on the whole picture.
Step 2: Set it in Order
Once you have reviewed and sorted each area, you are ready to set in order.
As you have already asked yourself the question of “how often is this item used”, you will already have a good idea about where it deserves to live.
The stamps and office supplies, for example, which hitherto may have lived on the other side of the room and which you are constantly walking back and forth to retrieve, could go in a middle drawer or cupboard with easy access to the desk.
As for those CDs and audiobooks that you reference rarely, they can now go across the room where the office supplies were before.
Step 3: Shine
Take a cloth, some spray cleaner and get cleaning. Having everything smell clean and fresh is going to feel amazing, and will trigger the sense of satisfaction of that you have truly touched every corner of your office. When you are done this step, put everything in its new home.
Step 4: Standardize
This is the part of the 5S process where you create guidelines about how to keep the workplace running as a visual factory.
According to 5S practices, the motto of standardize is “If you can’t see, you don’t know, and if you don’t know, you can’t control.”
What this means is that by creating a system based on visual cues you will be signaling to everyone who enters the space where things belong.
A simple example would be a box labeled “Ink Cartridges”; now you and everyone who uses the space knows where to find them, and when you are running low.
This might take the form of a photo in a corporate office, on the back of a cupboard door which captures exactly what is supposed to live in that area. When this step is done correctly, the space Will maintain itself beautifully.
Later on if you find that your 5S Organization does not work, this is the step that you need to come back to and revise in order to make all of your hard work maintainable into the future.
Step 5: Sustain
This final step involves communicating and educating yourself and others on how the new office area will function – what purpose it will be used for moving forward? In a large office area, this responsibility would be shared among all those who use the space.
We wish you the best of luck 5S-ing your office space!
We promise you the rewards of creating a visual workspace will increase productivity, decrease waste and give you immense satisfaction in your work, whether at home or in the office. Happy Organizing
We wish you the best of luck 5S-ing your office space!
We promise you the rewards of creating a visual workspace will increase productivity, decrease waste and give you immense satisfaction in your work, whether at home or in the office. Happy Organizing!
