The 5S methodology, originally compiled by Japanese Guru Iwao Kobayashi, stands for five methods, beginning with ‘S’, that encourage focus on time management, organization and pride, thereby increasing the employees level of satisfaction in their company. In a way, this management style gives a sense of personal ownership to the worker.

5S thinking can be basically explained like this:

• Sort (Seiri) - Go through everything and eliminate unnecessary or unused items and put in a central location.
• Set in order (Seiton) - “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
• Shine (Seiso) - Make sure personal work spaces are cleaned up, basic housekeeping.
• Standardize (Seiketsu) - Involve your employees to develop effective production standards that eliminate time wasters.
• Sustain (Shitsuke) - Get rid of old habits and methodologies, and stay the course with new improvements.

Implementing a lean manufacturing doctrine within your company benefits every member. Through the use of LED displays, your employees have a standard of measurement for their productivity as it relates to their line, and overall timeline requirements as it relates to their shift. Having an external assessment in conjunction with internal information gleaned from workers from every area of the plant allows 5S thinking to penetrate productivity from all angles.

Color coded urgency levels and real time production information, available to workers both on the line and to management down the hall, invoke a manageable standard that’s easy to understand.

With lean manufacturing, knowing is half the battle and eliminating wasted time and energy is the other half. When the battle is over, your company wins!

LED displays are used in the picking areas to notify the pick personnel that a particular carrier is on-site and they need to finish picking their orders for that shipment. General Mills uses a display over each loading dock to let forklift operators know what needs to be loaded on the truck. Before the pallet is loaded on the truck, it passes over a bar-code scanner, which causes the quantity of the item on the display to decrement by one.

Warehouse efficiency is improved with information provided in real time on strategically placed LED displays.

Production status boards are a helpful application for assembly lines. Using color profiling for true status at a glance, your employees will know exactly where they stand on key issues very quickly. Green indicates that all is well, an acceptable level of performance. Amber lets production know that there are concerns, or marginally unacceptable levels. Red is unacceptable and must be dealt with urgently.

LED production status board displays show:

• Goal - how many parts should be made
• Actual - how many parts were made
• Variance - how far behind or ahead is production

Industrial LED displays should always include an incrementing goal, which increases through the day to let employees know in real time if they are ahead or behind. These boards can also be configured to inform employees that parts are running low or out.

The industrial LED display has come a long way since the early years, when their primary purpose was general employee information. Now employees have an increased measure of safety that boosts their confidence in the company,  personal accountability, and ultimately morale.

Client Challenge:

Maintaining and improving its competitive marketplace edge is important to Del Monte, the largest producer and distributor of canned fruits and vegetables in the U.S. Management at the Plover, Wisconsin facility sought improved production volume in the palletization area. Cans entering this area by conveyor are packed into cases, then shrink-wrapped and palletized. Each pallet’s configuration, based on can size, changes multiple times per day. With thousands of cans palletized each day, and multiple product changeovers per shift, production workers need to know in real-time whether or not they are meeting the production goals established for each can size.

Rationale:

Visual Factory Management is a system for improving productivity, safety, quality, and employee morale through the use of visual controls. It helps employees avoid wasting time by providing them the information they need, where and when they need it. AutoComm recommended that Del Monte implement this type of system through placement of LED displays in their palletization area, with specialized software to clearly show production goals versus actual results.

Visual Factory Management is a system for improving productivity, safety, quality, and employee morale through the use of visual controls. It helps employees avoid wasting time by providing them the information they need, where and when they need it. AutoComm helped Del Monte implement visual factory through placement of LED displays in their palletization area, with specialized software to clearly show production goals versus results.

Results:

Since employees can see performance results in real-time, they’re able to maintain production levels at or above goal for the entire shift while working at a steady pace throughout the day. Supervisors can quickly evaluate the line’s performance and intervene when necessary. Over a span of three months, the palletization line experienced a 15 – 20% performance increase!

Because of these results, Del Monte is preparing for the next phase – to add similar visual controls throughout the remainder of their facility.

Product/Service Solution:

LED displays show the current goal, actual number of parts produced, and the difference between the two. This data is color coded to quickly inform employees of their performance: green for acceptable, amber for marginal, and red for unacceptable.

The Rise Display Network is an internet-based display control center that enables users to manage digital signage networks via the web - anywhere, anytime. Clients log into their own web account and manage content for all of their LCD and plasma monitors. Whether a client’s network involves one monitor or hundreds, the Rise Display Network makes managing and maintaining a digital signage network simple.

Duane Weber, president of AutoComm, explains, “We are very excited to add the Rise Display Network to our solution offering. Our goal is to be able to provide a vast array of value-added products and services for the rapidly evolving world of digital signage. The Rise Display Network will satisfy a surprisingly broad range of customer applications. Rise has much experience in the world of digital signage and this solution is intentionally designed with the non-technical user in mind.”

“Rise Display Network is a great complement for AutoComm’s digital signage products,” said Ryan Cahoy of Rise Vision. “By combining our online content management and live data with their display products and services, AutoComm has created a comprehensive offering to help customers attract the attention their messages deserve.”

Launched in 1998, AutoComm focuses on providing digital-signage solutions to retail, industrial and medical markets utilizing LED, LCD and Plasma technology. Based in Appleton, WI, the company’s extensive client roster includes Mayo Clinic, John Deere, University of Nebraska, and more. For additional AutoComm information, log onto www.autocomm-inc.com or call 800.724.4896 - we’d be happy to assist!