Thought of the Day - Did The British Invent 5S?

I heard an interesting story, that it wasn't the Japaneses but the British who invented 5S, the Japanese just gave it a name and applied it in factories. Hah! you may say, look at how bad the 5S is in most British manufacturing companies, did we invent it and forget?

Alas no, it was just invented and still used somewhere that most people never see - on boats in the Navy. Only in the Navy it is called being 'ship shape'. I'm sure you have all seen war films, sailors out scrubbing the decks etc. If you think about it what happens on a boat conforms to 5S;
Sort - there is nothing on the boat that doesn't need to be, space and weight are at a premium.
Set In Order - because the boat will move in the seas everything needs to be secured and hence in the right place.
Shine - things are cleaned on a very regular basis, you want to find any problems as soon as possible.
Standardize - The captain or senior officers make it clear what needs to be done and how regularly.
Sustain - The sailors get a bollocking if the previous 4 steps are not done.

In retrospect the best 5S implementation i have ever seen was onboard a nuclear submarine. Not only is space at a serious premium ensuring Sort has to be right, but you want to minimise the noise so the enemy can't detect you so your Set In Order has to be perfect (and noiseless) too.

To be honest i haven't done any fact checking about which Navy first coined the term 'ship shape' or that the Japanese didn't invent 5S thousands of years ago, but it is an interesting thought.