Implementation of the 5S lean tool at a laboratory station in the road industry

The concept of lean management is increasingly being adopted in all economic sectors around the world. The benefits of its use allow you to eliminate waste, save time, money and natural resources, while increasing the quality of the final product. Implementing lean tools into the organizational structures of enterprises improves the quality of work at each workstation, minimizes the level of accidents and increases the company’s competitiveness on the industry market. The aim of the study was to identify existing problems at the workplace in the road engineering laboratory and to propose 5S to eliminate them. To this end, a survey was con- ducted among laboratory employees and a visual assessment was conducted before and after the improvements were implemented. Based on the results, it was concluded that the identi- fied areas of waste were eliminated, primarily by reducing the time spent searching for tools, materials, and equipment by approximately 33.33 %.