Page 10 - OHS, September 2023

FACILITY SAFETY The ‘Five S’ System for Facility Safety How these straightforward and easy-to-implement solutions can keep your facility safe and efficient. BY JONATHAN WELLS In the second phase of the Five S system, your goal is to create How easy is it for your employees to properly store an environment where behaving safely is natural. What that equipment after they use it? If it’s not easy — for example, looks like will be different for every organization. A few guiding if there’s always clutter around the wall attachments questions to help you determine how to order your workspace: where extension ladders are meant to be secured — at least some of the team will just lean them against the wall. ■ Which people or locations use which items? At one auto dealership I worked with, that’s exactly what ■ When are items used?Which are used most often? happened. An extension ladder was leaning against a wall, and ■ How should items be grouped? when an employee went to replace an air hose, he knocked the ■ What is the most logical place to store items? ladder down and ended up needing 17 stitches. ■ Do we need storage equipment (containers, shelves, etc.)? So how can you create a workplace where proper safety Now that your space is (hopefully) less cluttered, you have behavior is the default? And how can you do that not only when an opportunity to arrange the items you do need to improve it comes to storing ladders but also cleaning spills, stacking ergonomics and minimize wasted motion. equipment, replacing hoses, and so on? In my experience, the Five S system is about the best out 3. Shine: Clean Everything there. Here’s how the Five S system (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Organizing and cleaning are crucial to organizational health and Standardize, Sustain) works and how it can boost the efficiency safety. In the Shine phase, you’ll bust out the elbow grease and and bottom line of any workplace under OSHA’s purview. clean every part of your workplace: dust surfaces and equipment, clean floors, and do any specialized cleaning required to ensure your space and the things in it are in good working order. 1. Sort: Review Everything in Your Workplace Your goal in the “sort” step is to inspect everything in your facility If you need motivation, consider that slips, trips and falls (equipment, tools, furniture, machines, materials) to identify are the most common workplace injury1 and the top reason which things you need and which you don’t. For the equipment companies face OSHA fines. This means the time you invest in you use regularly, the answer will be obvious. For things used less scrubbing and dusting will pay serious dividends in avoided often, ask the following questions: accidents, downtime, and fines. ■ What is this item’s purpose? Cleaning works best for the long term (which I’ll get to in a ■ When did we last use it? minute) when it’s everyone’s job. For example, every time there’s an oil spill, the responsible party should clean it up right then. ■ How often do we use it? ■ Does it truly need to be here? But if the organizational culture dictates that spills get cleaned Often, during the Sort phase, an organization discovers they exactly once, few will go out of their way to do extra cleaning. What’s more, not everyone knows how to clean, especially when have multiples of certain tools or an outdated version in addition to the up-to-date one. This means you have opportunities to it comes to specialty items like expensive equipment. eliminate objects you don’t need and eliminate clutter that could Make sure you establish clear ground rules and train your be hurting the safety and efficiency of your workspace. team before asking them to perform cleaning duties. To make sure you’re accurately assessing items’ value, carry out the Sort phase as a team. When you identify items you don’t 4. Standardize: Make Clean & Tidy a Habit need, decide what to do with them: give to a different department, The first three “S”es could be found in any spring cleaning effort. recycle, throw out, store, or sell. What makes the Five S system different is the final two, which are You’ll likely come across some items you’re not sure about. For all about making a clean, organized space the new normal. those, use the red tag method: affix vital information about the Standardizing is a crucial step in setting up an organization object (location, function, date of tagging, name of person who for long-term success. In this phase, you will: tagged). Keep tagged items in a single location. If you don’t use ■ Assign regular tasks. Cleaning, organizing and inspecting them for a couple of months, it’s probably safe to eliminate them. equipment should be part of everyone’s job description. Task assignment makes very clear who is in charge of what. 2. Set in Order: Develop a System that Works for You ■ Create schedules. Clarify how often cleaning, decluttering and inspecting should happen. Task frequency might vary. It’s not unreasonable to ask employees to affix extension ladders Schedules should not leave any room for doubt about how often to the wall after every use, but it is unreasonable to expect them to do that and get all their tasks done if obstacles get in the way. various tasks should be done. In a best-case scenario, schedules are available in multiple formats (hard copy digital copy, etc.) and The same is true for all safety behavior. The best systems are everyone gets regular reminders to do their work. the ones that facilitate safe behavior, making safe behavior easy. 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