5S use in manufacturing plants: contextual factors and impact on operating performance

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between 5S use, contextual factors and performance. The contextual factors comprise structural features of the firm, environment, human resources and technology and quality management. The performance measures refer to improvements in productivity, quality, employee satisfaction, lead time and new product design.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in 203 Spanish manufacturing plants, with personnel interviewees. The hypotheses proposed were verified using correlation analysis and analysis of variance.

The results show the existence of a positive relationship between the use of 5S and some contextual factors such as size, the integration of the plant in a multinational group, the type of product manufactured, the technology used and the quality programmes in the plant. Moreover, 5S is positively related to some operational performance measures, especially those referring to quality and productivity.

This paper contributes to the scarce empirical literature analysing the factors related to the use of 5S and its association with manufacturing performance.