Factors influencing employees ’ motivation in implementing 5 s system Noni

Introduction In order to stay competitive in an increasingly global marketplace, increase in customer demands and rapid market changes, companies are forced to rethink their manufacturing and management approaches to lower costs, waste reduction, improve productivity and at the same time increase quality (Heizer & Render, 2010). As a part of management’s lean manufacturing effort, 5S System is one of the tools that can help to improve competitiveness in business industry (Rahayu, 2009). Besides that, Ho (2008) mentioned that Lean 5S Business Model play a vital role for the global sustainability and economic development. Based on Scaffede (2002), lean manufacturing is a process that improves the standards of the organization which require the cooperation among the workers. More specifically, according to Papadopoulou & Ozbayrak (2005) and Heizer & Render (2010), lean is about reducing the time from customer order to manufacturing by identifying and eliminating non-value adding activities in design, production and supply chain management. One tool within lean that can be applied to the waste reduction is Five S (5S) System. It was developed by Mr. Hiroyuki Hirano of JIT Management Laboratory Company Ltd, in Tokyo and his famous book on 5S was first published in 1990.5S System focuses on five implementations of actions that starts with the prefix letter “S” aimed at the systematic hygiene management. In addition into that, Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke are Japanese words that summarized 5S, which translates to organization, neatness, cleanliness, standardization and discipline, respectively (Ppheng & Khoo, 2001; Shumin & Xiaoling, 2009). More than twenty years ago, it is undoubtedly that 5S System has gotten great success in many organizations especially in Japan and is spreading fast throughout the world. 5S is a method or practice management tool that can help everyone in organization to live in a better working environment (Ho, 1999; Ho 1998; Heizer & Render, 2010). More importantly, it is also to ensure compliance to the standards in the process and to fosters the spirit of continual improvement (Dulhai, 2008; Karkoszka & Honorowicz, 2009). According to Found, Beale and Rich (2006), when the implementation of 5S System is successful in a company, it will bring about amazing changes. The espoused benefits usually associated with a successful 5S System implementation include increase in productivity, quality, safety, maintenance, reduction in cost, achieve customers’ satisfaction, lower setup times and improved employee discipline (Hill, 2009; Samsonova, 2007). Besides that, the driving force for 5S System comes from people and requires commitment in all company levels. It can be seen that employees play a vital role whether it is from the management or non management employees in all stages of 5S implementation (Hiregoudar, 2007). It is a dream for many manufacturing companies to build up continuous improvement culture in the plants through total employees involvement and participation especially in implementing 5S System. Unfortunately, they always encounter many barriers while they are chasing this dream. Most of the manufacturing professionals think that the obstacles in implementing 5S System are there is no allinvolvement culture among employees and they think 5S System is equal to spring-cleaning, no good tools, lack of motivation and evaluation system, and lack of top management support (MESC, 2009). According to Albert (2004), the 5S System implementation cannot be successfully done without the involvement, hard work and dedication of the employees. So, participation and commitment is needed from all levels of personnel within the organization. Therefore, it becomes the aim of every organization to find out the factors that can affect the employees’ motivation to integrate 5S System in their working field. As a conclusion, Beale (2007) mentioned that, employee motivation is reported to be essential for successful implementation of lean manufacturing practices especially in 5S