Guntakal DRMO 5S Gets Quality Certification

The Divisional Railway Manager's (DRM) Office, Guntakal Division, of the South Central Railway, is the first DRM office in the Indian Railways to get a 5S certification by the Quality Circle Forum of India.

According to the SCR, "5S is a Japanese technique for workplace organization and housekeeping, that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri (sort), seiton (arrange), seiso (clean), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (sustain). Translated into English, they all start with the letter 'S'. The technique describes a way of organizing a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order. The decision-making process usually comes from a dialogue about standardization, which builds understanding among employees of how they should do the work."

"It has taken seven months of hard work and motivation for team Guntakal to attain this coveted target. During the course of this process, the Division has been able to dispose of 70 tonnes of old records/files. The Division has also implemented a software for record keeping, issuing and weeding out. This software was developed with VB in the front-end and MS Access in the back-end, upgradable to Oracle," the SCR said.

"Any file or record in the DRM office can now be fetched in 30 seconds. Housekeeping has tremendously improved, not only for filing, but also in other areas like toilets, parking, gardens, notice boards, homes and hospitals," the SCR said.

"Visual standards in different areas have been innovated by team Guntakal to ensure that, 'everything has a place and everything is in its place'," officials said.

SCR General Manager D P Pande congratulated T P Singh (Divisional Railway Manager, Guntakal Division) and his team of officers for their work. (INN)