5S for the Laboratory

"Who took my stapler?

Wheres the multi-channel pipettor gone?

Can't find the autoclave tape?

Wheres the auto-rep charger?

Why are we hoarding empty pipette tip boxes?

That machine has been used since 2011!

Where has the balance disappeared to this time?

Where is my mind????" 

Sound familiar??? This is a typical case for a 5S intervention! A clean, well organised, visual workspace is essential for structure and efficiency in any working environment. 5S is the first step towards creating a leaner, highly efficient and productive laboratory.

 5S for best lab practice

Sorting (Seiri) 

Seiri literally infers clear the work area and remove unnecessary items. Seiri means dump, discard, donate - clear the area of unnecessary items or items that are not used regularly. Get rid excess pipettes, tip containers, unused/excess inventory and out of date documents. Iif items are no longer needed, or are not being used regularly they should be cleared and not take up valuable lab space. If it doesn't belong to the lab then get rid of it. The Kanban system is a useful tool for this step of 5S. Use Kanban cards for uncertain items - red tagging is a visual management tool to designate the status of an item and help identify unnecessary items. Items are tagged for discarding, recycling, removal or relocation. Establish a red tag holding area for these items and create a clearance inspection schedule to sort held items on a regular basis. Kanban cards are useful for restocking and maintaining inventory. Sorting creates a more spacious ,purposeful workspace that saves time, energy and improves laboratory morale!

Set in order (Seiton) 

After sorting its time to organise the remaining items. Arrange and identify equipment, instruments etc. with visual aids. Give every item a designated area - use tape or paint as demarcators to outline areas and label the item and its designated area. Only the specified objects or instruments should be placed in their respective designated area. Colour coding is an excellent visual management aid that facilitate Seiton. In addition to the order and placement of items, specific storage areas for consumables should also be established. Optimize storage facilities and create more signage. Outline spaces on the floor, identify pathways, storage areas, waste location etc. and ensure there are no obstacles. Shadow boards are excellent for arranging tools and equipment. Set in order helps to arrange items so they can be found easily by anyone and returned to the rightful place by anyone. This is essential in shared work environments. It eliminates waste by duplication and time spent searching for items.

Materials, instruments and equipment set in place in QC labs 

Shining (Seiso) 

Most labs should be spotless, nevertheless it is important to make sure that all areas and all utilities are impeccably clean and kept that way! Shining will provide a more comfortable, pleasant workspace and instills a sense of pride. Shining enhances workplace safety and will also prevent equipment deterioration. Shining makes problems obvious and facilitates regular inspections for leaks, vibrations, breakages, and misalignments. Shining should be a daily routine and should also include inspection and routine maintenance.

Let it shine!!!

Standardizing (Seiketsu)

5S should be a daily routine with regular evaluation. Standardize entails a system of tasks and procedures to ensure continuous implementation of 5S. 5S consistency requires managing people, processes and equipment for effective implementation of 5S. Employees should be made aware of their responsibilities, facilitated by signage and visual awareness. Develop checklists and storage maps and assign tasks to individuals. Develop SOPs, this can improve training, helpful for new employees, saves time and improves efficiency. Allocate a specific time to conduct a 5S audit. Standardise taping, labelling, demarcation - make colour coordination and labelling consistent to minimize confusion.

Taping standards for 5S

Sustaining (Shitsuke)

Now that you have created a 5S workspace it is important to keep it that way! Create a 5S audit to ensure that areas are sorted, set in place and clean! Get everyone involved - motivation and commitment is essential for effective 5S implementation. Create a reward system to encourage people to maintain high standards of 5S - use 5S audit sheets as a scorecard for inter-lab competitions. Make 5S visible by displaying posters or newsletters and signage to create a constant reminder of 5S.

See the difference before and after 5S

Eliminate Waste

Muda is the Japanese word meaning futility, idleness, waste.

Anything that doesn't add value to a process is wasteful.
Identifying waste is critical to Lean practice - the 3M wastes include Muda, Mura, Muri 

            u

Muda

Muda (waste) is any activity that doesn't add value to a process or product. The 8 wastes in Lean are:

• Transportation - movement of material

• Inventory - use of space and funds to hold inventories of material

• Motion - movement of people

• Waiting - queuing or scheduled delays

• Overproduction - producing more than necessary – in lab terms this could be media, buffer or other reagents

• Over processing: excess work or checks in process

• Defects: work (samples) that needs correcting or repeating

• Skills - unused talent or potential

Mura

Mura (unevenness) is the waste associated with variations in work loads - a common occurrence in labs! Samples delivered and analysed in large batches impedes continuous flow. Lab workloads are volatile and are characterised by peaks and troughs. Imbalanced workloads negatively impact productivity and reduce lead time performance. Balancing the workload is an essential aspect of lean implementation to create a continuous flow rate. This can be achieved by levelling incoming samples by implementing a queue system at the start of the process with gradual release of samples to the lab. In biopharma, the sample flow rate is determined by production - lean manufacturing is necessary to alleviate Mura however it is not always possible due to batch processing is and queueing is dependent on sample stability.

The effect of unevenness and instability on lab productivity

Muri

Muri (overburden) is the overloading of people or equipment. Muri is often directly caused by unevenness (Mura) when lab analysts are overloaded by peaks in the workload. Muri can be alleviated by effective resource scheduling levelling the workload to meets demands.

Mura, Muda and Muri operate in synchrony. Eliminating one also eliminates the others. Identifying all aspects of waste is critical to lean implementation. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a powerful tool for process improvement. Similarly, statistical process control charts can help evaluate process efficiencies and identify 'special causes' or anomalies within a process. SPC charts can help assess variations within a process. It is most applicable to upstream and downstream bioprocessing, however SPC can also be effective in evaluating throughput efficieincies in laboratory sampling and may be valuable in detecting variation in analytical processes. Check out the case study Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Catalent.

Process Control Chart

SPC chart outlining the upper (UCL) and lower (LCL) control limits. Generally time or sample number is on the X axis and analytical or process parameter on the Y axis