5S is a medicine to cure “illnesses” of all sorts of industries. We reduced 20% of our unnecessary stock!- PREX Island
Ex-participants KAIZEN platform
5S is a medicine to cure “illnesses” of all sorts of industries. We reduced 20% of our unnecessary stock!
I am Yuliia, the leader of the Kaizen Promotion Section in the iron and steel related company. In our company, 5S activities is one of our customs. We could improve our everyday work through 5S. It influenced the employees’ way of working and resulted in changing our company’s cultural aspect.
When we started 5S activities in 2013, hardly anybody thought we could manage to organize our workplace and to set a rule on the amount of necessary stock. We often heard it said, “No, we can’t do such things!”, “Don’t disturb our work! We don’t need 5S!” or “We prefer the current situation!” However, two years later, our work place has changed drastically. Now, nobody remembers how it used to be before we started 5S activities because everyone thinks as if 5S had been in place from the very start. Currently, each employee tries to come up with an idea of how to make use of 5S. 5S is an excellent medicine to cure illness of all sorts of industries. Our company also reduced 20% of unnecessary stock.
【Some examples of the activities】
・Reconstruction of work teams (Leaders were chosen by the workers in the workplace: bottom-up, instead of top-down)
・When issues arise, analyze the reasons (creating analysis sheets)mplementing measures for safety: applying 5S, improving safety protective equipment and working clothes, and establishing in-house qualification system.(Safety Master, Safety Super Star)
Kaizen influences not only the companies’ profits but also companies’ policies and their contributions to the local areas and their countries.
I am Yamauchi from the International Department in PREX. Yuliia had lots of knowledge regarding 5S and kaizen, as she had already worked on kaizen in her company and lectured about kaizen before participating in JICA’s training course. Even so, she changed her opinion about kaizen after participating in the training course in Japan. Until then, she had thought kaizen influences only company’s profits. Instead, she learned that kaizen influences companies’ policies and their contributions to the local areas and their countries. She says that she also noticed that kaizen is a type of culture. Although it might not be easy to spread the culture in Ukraine, she is strongly motivated to continue kaizen activities and to disseminate the culture.
(Yamauchi, International Department)
Professor Minagawa’s Comment
I am so glad to see old faces in the reports from ex-participants. You, ex-participants, copy what you saw in Japan. I want you not just to copy it, but to notice that there are better ways suitable for your companies and to think how your companies should apply it.
I am very impressed with Yuliia’s report, as I could see a big improvement. It looks as though top-down is used, but I hope that you can create a system, even if it is a small kaizen, to be able to decide and conduct it by yourselves.
- Date : February 15, 2019
- Name : Ms. BRATUS Yuliia, Dniprosteel, Ukraine
- Seminar : Participated in JICA Practical Business Training for Central Asia (D) in 2016.
- job name : Dniprosteel belongs to
