5 ‘S’ experience: A case study

To be competitive in the liberalized economy, organizations must be supported by both efficient and effective 5 `S´ management system. Manufacturing organizations, in particular, often operate at less full capacity, quality and productivity are low, customer problems are high leading to increase in manufacturing costs of products. The experience has indicated that a large percentage of the total cost of doing business is due to poor handling of 5 `S´ related activities in the organization. One approach to improve the performance of the organization is to implement and develop a sustainable 5 `S´ system suitable to ones own organization. 5 `S´ has been successfully implemented in Japan over the past three decades, and more recently in India. Inherent with in the 5 `S´ concept are the successful journey towards implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) in the organization. In turn, this will help the organization to be competitive in the domestic and global market. This paper shares some of the experience of 5 `S´ implementation in Mayur Uniquoters, India´s leading synthetic leather manufacturer in Rajasthan. This paper will discuss achievements made by the organization while adopting and implementing 5 `S´ and how it has helped in TQM journey. It also identifies some of the difficulties faced during its implementation, relates with the concept of 5 `S´ and proposes some solutions to eliminate them.