The purpose of the present paper is to implement lean manufacturing in a small-scale industry. In this regard, 5S tool is chosen for analysis in selected rice mills situated in Kurukshetra, Haryana. 5S weekly appraisal scores are calculated using 5S audit sheets, which show the adoption of lean manufacturing in the industry. The results reveal reduction in non-essential items such as tool searching time, dust, unwanted material and visual control. The results derived from the analysis were also discussed with the management who found the analysis to be very useful.

The concept of lean manufacturing was introduced in Japan, and Toyota Production System was the first company to use it. Lean manufacturing is a concept whereby all production employees work together to eliminate waste. Waste is defined as anything that does not add value to the end product from the consumer’s perspective. Lean manufacturing simply follows the notion that the customer will pay for the value of services they receive and they will not pay for the mistakes. Now people have different perspective about manufacturing processes. They understand that the value of a product is defined from the customer’s point of view and not from the internal manufacturing point of view.

Operations Management Journal, The 5S pillars—Sort (Seiri), Set-in-Order (Seiton), Shine (Seiso), Standardize (Seiketsu), Sustain (Shitsuke) Implementation, Lean Manufacturing, Small-Scale Industry.