What is a 6S Audit?

If you own or manage a company, you will want to do everything you can to eliminate waste and improve the efficiency of the organization. For many companies, the best way to do this is to start implementing 6S strategies. 6S is a very popular concept that takes six separate ideas, each of which start with an S, that will help you to identify and eliminate waste in the workplace. If you are using any type of 6S strategy, you will want to make sure that you are performing a 6S audit on a regular basis.

A 6S audit is process by which you evaluate how well your company is doing when it comes to the different types of waste elimination efforts identified in 6S. For example, the 4^th S is for standardize. So to audit this option, you may go around and look at all the different processes and procedures that you have in place for your facility. Check to see whether everyone in the company is following these standards regardless of what shift they work, or other factors. There are other questions you can ask about how your facility is doing with standardization to determine how well you are doing.

When performing a 6S audit, you will want to go through each of the different pillars of 6S and see how it is going. These pillars are Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, Sustain, and Safety. Of course, you need to know the details of what each of these mean and how they should be implemented into your operations. Performing a 6S audit at least once or twice a year is a great way to make sure that you are getting the most benefits out of the 6S strategies. If you are going to use 6S in your facility, make sure you have an audit as a part of the long-term efforts toward waste elimination.