Bringing Japan to Lebanon: Bridging Cultures in Our Production Department

By Joelle Akiki , Assistant Production Manager at BMA Paints

Running a factory is a key responsibility that involves supervising production. It includes responsibilities such as boosting efficiency, maintaining high product quality, ensuring safety in the workplace, and meeting deadlines. At BMA Paints, we lead while getting inspired from the 5S philosophy from Japan, which stands for Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.

This approach enhances workflow, minimizes waste, and creates a safer, more efficient environment.

1- “Sort”: Eliminate unnecessary items from the workspace

In BMA Paints factory, we work on sorting unnecessary items like excess raw material, outdated equipment, raw material, and tools no longer in use in order not to accumulate quickly and to avoid cluttered workspaces and potential safety hazards, for example, expired or improperly stored pigments may not perform optimally, affecting the final paint quality.

When sorting these items, we’re minimizing the risk of accidents caused by obstructions or hidden tools, we’re leaving valuable space for more important tasks and we’re assuring we have the best quality of paints produced by using raw material well organized, and sorted.

2- “Set in Order”: Organizing for Accessibility

Once the unnecessary items have been sorted, the next step is Set in Order; organizing the remaining items for easy access. In our factory, this means setting up workstations, where packages, raw material and equipment have a designated place.

Each pallet, even vessels are labeled, easy to find, and refers to a specific item to be produced.? Workstations are designed to minimize the need for workers to search for materials, which means next to each vessel we can find its related pallet.

In this stage, we use also visual signals to make it easy for employees to quickly assess whether an item is in its proper place or missing, like our finished product area to be transferred to the warehouse and our filling area.

3- “Shine”: Cleaning and Maintaining Equipment

At BMA Paints factory, all equipment such as mixers, pumps, and storage tanks (vessels) are regularly cleaned to prevent contamination of colors or chemicals. This is particularly important in paint manufacturing, where even a small amount of an unintended pigment can spoil an entire batch. Moreover, maintaining clean facilities minimizes risks like slips, spills, or chemical exposure.

4- “Standardize”: Creating Consistent Practices

After sorting, organizing, and cleaning, the next step is Standardize, which involves establishing clear procedures to maintain the first three steps.

At BMA Paints factory, to achieve standardization we’ve created detailed checklists for regular cleaning and ensuring proper labeling of materials. Furthermore, work instructions are documented and filed for every task, and we’re working on standardizing our formulas too.

5- Sustain: Ensuring Long-Term Commitment

The final step in the 5S philosophy is Sustain, which ensures that the improvements made are maintained over time. This requires continuous commitment from all levels of the organization, from leadership to frontline workers.

And in order to sustain them, regular inspection is conducted by me, or by our production manager, Nancy Hassoun, in addition to weekly meetings held by our operations manager, Joelle Issa, to discuss these 5S and keep following them.

Finally, implementing the 5S philosophy in BMA Paints factory was the best decision made since it gave our factory several benefits such as improved efficiency, higher product quality, enhanced safety, cost-saving, and better employee morale which it has led to our presence successfully in the local market and abroad.