How we implement an efficient way and keep it sustainable in our Exceptional Personal Service?

5S methodology played a big role at Stocksigns, these are to Sort (Seiri), Set in Order (Seiton), Shine (Seiso), Standardize (Seiketsu), and Sustain (Shitsuke)  Here at Stocksigns our operational focus is on efficiency, accuracy and high-quality signage. This all plays a crucial role in providing the Exceptional Personal Service we’re proud of, so that’s why we flipped it all upside down!

Working with our consultant, Paul Henry, we overhauled our Operations department to create a leaner manufacturing process. A big part of this was implementing the 5S Methodology.

Stocksigns prides itself on exceptional personal service, so implementing 5S has helped for the first time to ensure we continue to deliver high-quality products.  Over the past 60 years, we have had many methodology techniques but we feel like 5S Methodology was the right fit for Stocksigns, not only has this helped us keep consistent levels of quality and lead times, which keeps the customer happy, it has also helped with overall happiness in the workplace as everything runs a lot smoother with less internal issues.

Some steps such as getting rid of the old stock may feel like they make the process longer, but they drastically help reduce mistakes. So the whole Stocksigns team needs to keep educating and reminding themselves as to why we do some of the things we do, so people aren’t tempted to try and take shortcuts.

Each department around the business had different benefits to this for example, In operations as started by Dave these were ‘Pure and simple, with a profit margin and happy customers’ whereas in Sales Josh said that their biggest benefit was “giving the team even more confidence whilst making the promise to our customers, that we get it “right first time”. It is a lot easier to sell something that you well and truly believe in. No one in the world is perfect, and we don’t claim to be, but we are pretty damn good at what we do.” As well as getting rid of so much stock that was being held, some for 10 years. We couldn’t afford to make many mistakes. So, we plan to get it right the first time, every time so that we can focus our resources on the next project/customer that is in need. 5S has helped streamline everything, keeping both employees and customers happy. – The project was well worth it.