Lean 5S and Plastic Injection Moulding
6 May 2019
Tex Plastics practises the lean 5S System which means our clients benefit by having faster set up times and reduced operating costs.
What is 5S and how does it improve your plastic injection moulded parts?
The world’s most efficient moulders perform the 5S System on a daily basis to establish and preserve workplace organisation. 5S is a basic foundation of lean manufacturing systems. ‘A place for everything, and everything in its place’ is the mantra of the 5S System. It’s a tool for ensuring workplace improvement and incorporates storage and workspace systems. The result is an improved manufacturing process and the lowest overall cost for goods produced.
The 5 pillars of a visual workplace
The 5S System reduces waste and optimises productivity through maintaining an orderly workplace and using visual cues to achieve more consistent operational results. The term 5S refers to five steps:
Sort - All unneeded tools, parts and supplies are removed from the area
Set in order - A place for everything and everything in it’s place
Shine - The area is cleaned as the work is performed
Standardise - Cleaning and identification methods are consistently applied
Sustain - 5S is a habit and is continually improving the company culture
The advantages from implementing the 5S System
The 5S System at Tex Plastics is implemented in small teams, working together to get materials closer to operations, right at workers fingertips and organised and labeled to facilitate operations with the smallest amount of wasted time and materials.
This has brought about the following advantages:
Sort
- Process improvement by costs’ reduction
- Stock decreasing
- Better usage of the working area
- Prevention of losing tools
Set in order
- Process improvement (increasing of effectiveness and efficiency)
- Shortening of the time of seeking necessary things
- Safety improvement
Shine
- Maintenance - the cleanness of devices
- Maintenance and improvement of the machines’ efficiency
- Maintenance - the clean workplace, easy to check
- Quick informing about damages (potential sources of damages)
- Improvement of the work environment
- Elimination of the accidents - reasons
Standardise
- Safety increasing and reduction of the industry pollution/Carbon Footprint
- Working out the procedures to define the course of processes
Sustain
- Increasing of awareness and morale
- Decreasing of mistakes quantity resulting from inattention
- Proceedings according to decisions
- Improvement of the internal communication processes
- Improvement of the team relations
Applying 5S has enabled faster set up times, reduced operating costs, a visually attractive workspace and higher employee morale. This makes us more competitive and enables us to provide customers with a better service from design for manufacture to finishing and assembly.