Background

The testing and characterisation of materials is fundamental to the manufacturing work carried out at the AFRC.  Appropriate storage of these materials is essential to enable the AFRC to provide these services to customers. Applying 5S Principles, the storage of materials was reviewed in order to increase the accuracy of the inventory system, reduce the space required for storage, improve the way materials were stored, improve levels of health and safety, reduce the costs associated with tracing items, and improve the customer experience.

What changes were implemented?

• Standardisation of materials storage was transformed by sectioning items into areas based on teams using 5S principles
• Specially tailored audit system to sustain the 5S principles
• Improved storage to utilise shelving units and remove storage on the floor increasing levels of Health & Safety
• Creation of dedicated workspace to safely package materials for shipping