5S Practice: Its effects on quality and productivity of work among UiTM support staff

The 5S concept, practiced in Japan since the early 1980s, is the most widely accomplished practice in organizations in both the public and private sectors. To create a more comfortable, organized, clean, safe, neat and quality work culture within an organization, 5S practices were then introduced in Malaysia in the mid-1980s. It is able to define, achieve and ultimately maintain a better standard of work culture while increasing the value of employees in an organization. In this regard, the study was conducted to determine the effects of implementing 5S practices on productivity and quality of work among UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang’s support staff. The questionnaire was distributed to 60 respondents working in the workshops, laboratories, and kitchens at UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21. This study found that the effects of 5S practice among UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang support staff in terms of quality and productivity of work were quite excellent, reflecting the improvement in the work quality and productivity among support staff since 5S was implemented. This indirectly improves quality and productivity of laboratories, workshops, and kitchens services. The campus management needs to recover the lack of 5S practice to optimise the work quality and productivity among the support staff. Keywords: 5S practice, UiTM, productivity, quality of work