Implement improvements whenever possible. Worker inputs can be very valuable for identifying improvements. Variety of applications 5S methodology has expanded from manufacturing and is now being applied to a wide variety of industries including health care, education, and government. Visual management and 5S can be particularly beneficial in health care because a frantic search for supplies to treat an in-trouble patient (a chronic problem in health care) can have dire consequences. Although the origins of the 5S methodology are in manufacturing, it can also be applied to knowledge economy work, with information, software, or media in the place of physical product. In lean product and process development The output of engineering and design in a lean enterprise is information, the theory behind using 5S here is "Dirty, cluttered, or damaged surfaces attract the eye, which spends a fraction of a second trying to pull useful information from them every time we glance past. Old equipment hides the new equipment from the eye and forces people to ask which to use". See also Japanese aesthetics Just-in-time manufacturing Kaikaku Kaizen Kanban Lean manufacturing Muda Gogyo (traditional Japanese philosophy) References Methodology Japanese business terms Lean manufacturing Occupational safety and health