Extension of the Lean 5S Methodology to 6S with An Additional Layer to Ensure Occupational Safety and Health Levels

Abstract

This paper proposes an expansion of the Lean 5S methodology, which includes the concept of Safety–Security as 6S. Implementation was done by a standardized process tested in a pilot area that is part of the Integrated Industrial Manufacturing System Laboratory at the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ICAI). The additional 6S phase (Safety-Security) thoroughly reviews all areas of an industrial plant by analyzing the risks at each workstation, which let employees be fitted out with protection resources depending on each of their personal characteristics and to guarantee the safety of the workstation by strictly complying with occupational safety and health and machinery use standards, which must hold a CE certificate of compliance. The main objective was to increase the scope of 5S methodology to respond to the occupational safety and health needs for machines required in optimizing production processes. It is important to remember that companies must guarantee that their employees use personal protection equipment (PPE) at their work posts or stations that protect them properly from risks to their health and safety and that cannot be prevented or sufficiently limited by using collective means of protection or by adopting work organization measures. The industrial resources employed in the pilot area chosen for 6S implementation were a sheet metal deformation and cutting line comprised of a punch press, feeder, and winder, as well as a conventional machine tool with minimum safety specifications and without CE certification. Until now, there had been no plans to implement a 6S tool in this laboratory. However, given that the existing safety risk to operators is high, the implementation has led to obtaining optimal results, which justify the success of the 6S methodology proposal. In short, it lets us advance towards the zero accident target.

Speaking Up about Workplace Safety: An Experimental Study on Safety Leadership

“…Notably, voluntary compliance with international safety and health standards (see e.g., the ISO 45,000 series), in addition to compliance with regulations (e.g., the Health and Safety at Work Act), is becoming more relevant for organizations worldwide. Furthermore, interesting applications of organizational sustainability that include a focus on occupational safety are the lean 6S methodology [3], which aims at reducing waste in the production process, and green chemistry [4], which aims at reducing the use of toxic chemicals and chemical waste. Although there are reasons to believe that it would be worthwhile for "green" to include "safe", environmental sustainability has often been considered as a means of improving profitability, and safety is often considered a background concern, in spite of numerous calls (see e.g., [5]) for the workplace to be considered not only from an occupational health perspective, but overall health promotion.…”

Lean Technologies Application as a Tool to Increase the Economic Efficiency of the Production System

“…Most companies start lean techniques implementation by introducing the 5S System and Visualization methods defining them as the basis of lean manufacturing conception [8], [9], [10], [11].…”

Nagyvállalatok logisztikai dokumentációs folyamatainak feltérképezése

“…Olyan területeken jelenik meg a lean filozófia különböző mélységű alkalmazása, mint a hagyományos és additív gyártás [10], érinti nem csupán a gyártási folyamatot, hanem az ahhoz kapcsolódó teljes ellátási láncot [11,12] és egyre kiterjedtebb mértékben alkalmazza az Ipar 4.0 technológiákat, különösen a szenzorhálózatokat [13]. Nagyvállalati környezetben az ismert lean eszközök használata mellett [14] a folyamatfejlesztés fontos eszközévé vált a szimuláció [15,16]. A lean filozófia olyan speciális területeken is jelentős fejlesztések megvalósítására adott lehetőséget, mint a fafeldolgozás [17] vagy az építőipar [18], ugyanakkor megjelent a gyártás biztonságát jelentős mértékben befolyásoló karbantartás területén is [19].…”