In April 2012, Sanmar's foundry in Mexico, Acerlan, reviewed the necessity to improve housekeeping in the plant. Although a 5S programme was already in place, there were only occasional meetings and no significant improvement was seen in several departments.
Hence, a plant-wide management meeting was held to brainstorm the root cause of lack of improvement and subsequently to develop a new plan of action. The resultant plan was agreed to by the entire team, which included housekeeping and safety staff.
The plant was divided into 30 areas and leaders were assigned to each of those areas. The group reviewed each area for suggested improvements and also developed a scoring system for each area. The team developed an audit group to walk through weekly to score the different areas and post the results. Those areas that met the minimum requirement were rewarded with free lunch for the whole of the next week.
Acerlan has achieved significant improvement in the area of housekeeping and it has created a much safer and more pleasant work environment.
Significant housekeeping activities included in the plan: