WHAT IS SEIRI?

Japanese word Meaning Intent of the word

Seiri Sort REMOVING all the items, that are not required for the job under process,
from the work station.
INTENTION OF THE ACTIVITY
Remove all the unwanted things from the work place (for various factors Man, Machine, Method, Material,
Measurement, Environment), for performing the activities efficiently (within the standard time) and effectively
(with no rejection / scrap generation from the process). SAVE TIME, SPACE AND RESOURCS OCCUPIED BY
THESE ITEMS.
APPLICABILITY
All the logical workstations all over the organization in both administrative and manufacturing functions.

WHAT TO REMOVE FROM THE FACTORS?

Man Remove excessive man power from the work station.
Machine Remove possibility of the tool change and tool sharing during actual activity, remove chances of
breakdown by predictive maintenance (after starting the machine & run without load).
Method Eliminate all the avoidable non-value added activities and try to reduce essential unavoidable non-
value added activities. Ensure availability of the standard WIP.
Material Remove all the unwanted material from the work place.
Measurement Remove all the unwanted measuring instruments / gadgets from the workplace.
Environment Eliminate extra environmental conditioning, than required for performing the job repetitively.
EXAMPLES
Unnecessary material stored on the shop floor.
Unnecessary hard copies floating in the organization, unnecessary printouts of the information which is for
temporary use, unnecessary mails lying in the mail boxes.
Evidence of non-value added activities like rework, de-burring, excessive inspection, avoidable consumption of
electricity etc.
Pertinent system shows symptoms like no material, long set up time, frequent tool changes.