Improving Productivity Using 3S Culture

Productive habits are patterns of behavior or actions that consistently support goal achievement and increased efficiency. Implementing these habits can provide long-term benefits in various aspects of life, including work.

In the competitive business world, increasing productivity is one of the keys to success. One method that has proven effective in improving efficiency and performance is implementing the 3S culture: Sweep, Sort, and Standardize. This culture is derived from the Lean management method, which focuses on eliminating waste and improving operational efficiency. By applying these principles, companies can create a work environment that is more organized, efficient, and responsive to change.

We are going to walk you through our method called Sweep, Sort and Standardised (3S for short). We used the 5S (Sorting, Simplify, Systematic Cleaning, Standardising and Sustaining) that most companies use and simplified it to 3S because they are what we see as the bottom line of 5S. Read more down below if you want to know how we increase our own productivity through these simple steps.

Sweep

Before you start working (passionately that is), make sure to inspect and clean everything that you would use on your work. We’re talking about tools, documents, parts container, mouse and even the mousepad. Take a second to just sweep through everything that you’re going to use for that job. Ensures that the tools you are using are all ready to use so your job wouldn’t get paused due to some technical breakdown (for example, your mouse broke)

Sort

After you check all the things that YOU NEED for that job, you would find your work area surrounded by things YOU DON’T NEED for that job (but if you don’t find any, then great job to you!). In Connect Automation, we always have things we need for a job within our easy reach. The things we don’t need for that job? Well we keep it away from our work area just because we don’t want them for that job. Things that are unrelated to the job shouldn’t be in front of you, they create distractions from the job we are currently doing (not to mention the extra space they taken that we can easily use for work).

and finally Standardise

Make it your personal standard. If your jobs usually need large variations of stuff that keeps changing from one job to another, then make the 3S your standard process before you start to work. Good things will come when you have a good habbit, and vice-versa, bad things tend to happen if you allow bad habbits to continue. Start with something small, standardise it, do it every day and you will notice the increase in your work productivity.

A bit confused about how YOU can implement 3S at your work? Have a look at the examples below.

Example

You are working a desk job and you are responsible on counting the costs of products your company sells. Now your company wants to expand and sells a new lineup of products that never before seen. You, as a responsible costing staff, decided to have a meeting with the PIC of the new products. You took notes and the PIC gave you the lists of ingredients (or materials) needed to produce each of the new products. When you have everything you need, you brought them all and put it onto your desk.

Had you not know 3S, you would most definitely work your way from top to bottom right? and that maybe the most efficient way for that case. But you do know 3S and on the meeting, you decided to separate all product’s document and you clip them based on the product. Now instead of a pile of paper you had previously, you would now have separated clip of papers and each clip represents one product. Yay you!

In summary these are the things you need to do before you start working:
Sweep – Inspect and clean everything that you need for your job
Sort – Put everything related to the job in front of you and put away everything that are unrelated to the job
Standardise – Make this a habbit

Increasing your productivity wouldn’t be an issue no more and your life would be so much easier when you start improving how you work on something. So now you know one of the habbit we use to increase our productivity, now it’s your turn to implement it and just have a fine working experience to be honest.

Knowing the details before choosing a conveyor is crucial!

Learn more right over here

Want to know how we improve our customer productivity using a Modular Conveyor?

Read their story here