Understanding 5S methodology with a game.

What is 5S ? 5S give us the capability to identify abnormalities. It stand for 5 japanese words :

The purpose of this game is to demonstrate the benefits of implementing 5S in the workspace, and in your personal life.

How to play

This board is your current workstation, and your goal is to click on each card, in sequence, from 1 to 50. You will have 30 seconds to accomplish this task.

Don't worry, at first, this task is impossible to accomplish. But, at the end of the game, you should be able to accomplish the task.

You scored :

Not easy right ? Well, that's exactly the point. :)

Let's start with the first concept of 5S : Sort. We remove all unnecessary items. It's much easier and safer to work in a cleaner environment.

Since we don't need number over 50, let's remove them.

Let's try again, to see how things go !

You scored :

Good ! It was a little bit easier. But we can still improve.

The second concept is Shine. We clean our workspace. Let's remove colors and straighten the cards, so all cards are more easy to find.

Another concept in 5S is Set in Order. We arrange all necessary items so that they can be easily selected for use. So, let's sort the cards in quadrants.

Card 1 will be in quadrant 1, Card 2 in quadrant 2.... Card 10 will be in quadrant 1. Look at the picture to visualize the quadrants.

You scored :

What a great improvement !

Let's do the Standardize. It consist of standardize the best practices in the work area.

Since we need to click the card 1 to 50 in sequence, it seem logical to reorganise them in a standard way to make our job as easy as possible.

You scored :

Look just how things improved.

No 5SSortedSet in Order & ShineStandardized
0/50 0/50 0/50 0/50

The last step is Sustain or Self-Discipline. It's mean that you have to maintain the previous four steps.

This game isn't enough to explain correctly the concepts, but I hope gave you interest in learning about 5S. There's a lot of articles on the internet talking on the subject. You can start by looking on wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology)

If you like the game, please share it.