As well as Lean and Kanban the 5s appeared in Japan from JIT (Just in Time).

The 5S was and is still widely used in the automotive industry and complements Kanban in the sense of maintaining a prospect of improvement.

Kanban was introduced to the software industry by David J. Anderson

The concept of 5s

5s is a template for organizing the working environment or a manufacturing factory etc. From the moment the 5S is implemented in the environment the work of employees becomes cleaner and organized.

To use an analogy see the image below:

How it works in traditional industry:

1 - Arrange
Organize the area and eliminate waste waste, in which waste can be a tool in a place where it is not useful.

2 - straighten

After the site has been organized and positioned in a way that the work can be completed generating as little waste as possible. In order to avoid waste, if you need to move a tool 100 times a day the ideal is that it is in one of the most accessible places to save time.

3 - Polish (Shine)

Ensure that the place is always clean and tidy (ready to use).

4 - standardize

Make patterns to ensure that positioning is maintained.

5 - Keep

Verify that the patterns are being followed as designed.

How to relate the concepts in our industry :

1 - Arrange

Remove old codes and that are no longer in production, get rid of it does not matter anymore.

2 - straighten

Sometimes in software production there is the concept of: "make it work and then fix it to look beautiful ". Separate the code with some form of distributed guidance (aspects, objects) so you don't need to check what happens in a main.c of 20,000 lines of code.

3 - Polish (Shine)

Allow yourself time to refactor the project and document the functions as something in the JavaDoc sense (you don't need to be programming in Java to maintain the JavaDoc proposed pattern).

4 - standardize

If your team does not have a code pattern that should be followed, do not expect that a new member will analyze the existing code and try to follow a possible pattern.

5 - Keep

Once standards are set it is important to maintain them to ensure that the company continues to follow them.

Source

I believe that yes the 5s has influence with development. The 5s is a methodology, a method tells us what to do and not how to do, think to do a quality work in team what better than Organization, standardization, proper use, discipline and cleanliness, as a whole, can exist interpretations. For a worker, for example, cleaning and organization are different things, different understandings than a programmer or an analyst of support, more refer to the same principle.

Below the definition of the 5s as in the source;

Principles of 5s

The concept of 5S is based on the five Japanese words whose initials form the name of the program. The words are

Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke,

That migrated to Portuguese were translated as "sensos", in order not to mischaracterize the nomenclature of the program. They are:

Sense of Use, sense of organization, sense of cleanliness, sense of health and sense of self-discipline.

Let's look separately at the concepts of each of the 5S:

1) SEIRI-sense of Use

Means using materials, tools, equipment, data, etc. with balance and common sense. Where the disposal or relocation of all that is considered dispensable for carrying out the activities is carried out. The results of the application of the sense of Use are immediately evidenced.

Space gain Ease of cleaning and maintenance Better inventory control Cost reduction Preparation of the environment for the application of the other 5s concepts

2) SEITON-sense of Organization

The sense of organization can be interpreted as the importance of having all things available so that they can be accessed and used immediately. For this, Standards must be set and use some very simple tools like panels, labels, bookshelves, etc. Everything should be very close to the place of Use and each object should have its specific place. We can identify as results of the sense of Organization:

Time Saving; Ease of locating tools; Reduction of unsafe spots.

3) SEISO-sense of cleanliness

The translation for the word Seiketsu is cleanliness. This sense defines the importance of eliminating dirt, waste or even objects that are foreign or unnecessary to the environment. It is about keeping the ACIO of the floor, cabinets, drawers, shelves, etc. The sense of cleanliness can go beyond the physical aspect, also encompassing the personal relationship where a work environment where transparency, honesty, openness and respect prevail is preserved. The application of the sense of cleanliness results in:

Healthy and pleasant environment; Reduction of the possibility of accidents; Better conservation of tools and equipment; Improvement in interpersonal relationship.

4) SEIKETSU - sense of standardization and Health

The sense of standardization is translated into fixing patterns of colors, shapes, lighting, location, plates, etc. As it also covers the concept of health, it is important that the state of toilets, canteens, work rooms, etc.are checked. in order to identify problems that affect the health of employees such as ergonomic problems, lighting, ventilation, etc. This sense has as main purpose to keep the first 3 S ' (selection, sorting and cleaning) so that they do not get lost. The main results of the application of this concept can be evidenced:

• ease of locating and identifying objects and tools;
• physical and mental balance;
• improvement of common areas (toilets, dining rooms, etc.);
• improvement in security.

5) SHITSUKE-sense of discipline or self-discipline

The last step of the 5s program is defined by personal compliance and commitment to the previous steps. This sense is composed of the ethical and moral standards of each individual. This step will in fact be performed when individuals begin to do what needs to be done even when there is no surveillance usually done by the leadership or when they extend these concepts to the personal life demonstrating your full involvement. Faced with a self-disciplined environment around the 5s principles it is possible to have:

• improved quality, productivity and safety at work;
• pleasant daily work;
• improvement in human relations;
• valuing the human being;
• compliance with operational and administrative procedures;

The coexistence with the five senses presented leads individuals to better understand their role within an organization and makes them part of the pyramid of results achieved, raising the awareness that one must be disciplined even when there are no charges. Therefore, quality programs have helped companies in the process of continuous improvement of products or services, mainly through cultural change, in order to obtain the necessary competitive advantage that will be reaped in the short, medium and long term.

Yes, the 5S, in software development, are directly linked to the use of the philosophy LSD.

Just like Lean Software Development and Kanban, and 5S are systems JIT (just in time system) and you can use them together, one complementing the other in a vision of continuous improvement.