A Report on 5S Tour at Toyota Tsusho Manufacturing Ghana Company Limited

On the 25^th of October 2023, the Quality office organized a 5S tour at Toyota Tsusho Manufacturing Ghana Company Limited (TTMG) for 24 members of the institute. The bus left the institute at 9:10 am and got to TTMG at 10: 00 am. Upon arrival, the staff of Noguchi were warmly welcomed to the TTMG by the Factory manager, Mr. Seko and his team. We were given a short lecture at the beginning on the profile of TTMG, their Plant Layout, vision, shareholding structure, and presence in Africa. We were then divided into three (3) groups with each group having a tour guide to take us through the process of manufacturing the cars and to see the implementation of the 5S – Kaizen activities in the factory. （Photo1）

My group was first taken to the offices of all staff of TTMG. The office was one big space divided into sections. The sections contained staff who have been categorized according to their expertise or the work they do. Each section had their manager sitting directly opposite them and the reason behind this arrangement was to facilitate team building and easy access to personnel.

The second place my group was taken to was the safety door which was a reminder to the staff of TTMG to ensure their own safety came first. The staff of TTMG had a culture of pointing to the safety door and saying, “Safety first”, every morning. We were then taken to their notice board which contained information on how to dress, and a mirror by the notice board which staff use to check whether they are clothed in the appropriate personal protective equipment. The notice board also contained some safety signages, protocols and certificates of fire service. It also contained their policy, emergency reporting system, and safety achievement board for the month. （Photo2）

The third place was the operation floor, where packages of the cars with their parts were offloaded and reassembled. They had six sections for their operations. They had the first section demarcated for just offloading the package and orderly arranging them in a designated place. The next three sections were designated for dissembling the parts of the cars and reassembling them. The next two sections were designated for checking the final assembling of the car parts with zero defects. At every section of the TTMG operations, they had a checklist for checking and monitoring the progress of their work. If any section finds a defect in the cars, they write it down and that defect is passed on from section to section. All the tools they used at each section were labelled in sections and placed at designated places for section members. They kept an inventory of all their tools and equipment. （Photo3 , 4 ,5）

Next, my group was taken to their cabinets and storage spaces. They had labelled all the cabinets from top to bottom. They had also taken a photograph of the arrangement of the cabinet and pasted it on the door of the cabinet. The idea for this photograph was for visualization and easy access to pick up and put things back orderly. Inside the cabinet, there was also a picture of what should be placed inside the cabinets for ease of taking things out and placing them back, and everything was orderly arranged. The final place we were taken to was the storage room of their spare parts, where they had demarcated the floor for the opening of the door. The reason they did this was to prevent anyone from being hurt in the case of opening the door. In addition, all their floors were demarcated for the position of all items used for working. （Photo6）

At the end of the tour, we explained what we had seen and learnt from the tour and what we would implement in our institute. We also asked the question of how personnel who don’t abide by the rules or regulations of the TTMG are handled. The tour guide replied that a warning warrant is sent out to the personnel and if the person still insists on not conforming to the rules and regulations, the matter would be escalated to the disciplinary committee which would handle the situation before eventually the person is fired. The tour guides expressed their gratitude for hosting us and taking us around their facility. The manager ended the tour by encouraging us to uphold teamwork, safety and 5S-Kaizen implementation in our institute. （Photo7）

The visit to Toyota was an exciting one as I had the opportunity to learn and see the implementation of 5S- Kaizen at a manufactory site. I realised the impact 5S-Kaizen had on an organization, as it helps an organization to manage time efficiently, produce products of good quality and reduce wastage. The visit to Toyota has taught me to plan my activities ahead of time and ensure my plans for the day are executed before the day ends. It also helped me to realise the importance of the organization of workspaces, as it plays a vital role in achieving the goals set by an organization. Considering all this acquired knowledge, my vision will be to implement the 5S-Kaizen organization tool in my work environment such as organization of documents in cabinets, and sample arrangement in fridges and freezers, to ensure efficiency and time management.