In many companies, 5S often gets treated like the vegetable salad at a company-sponsored buffet — everyone knows it’s good for one’s health, but many silently skip it for the steak.

Almost everyone knows it well – Sort, Set in Order, Sweep, Standardize and Sustain. It’s the English version of 5S, a productivity formula popularized by the Japanese in the 1980s. It helps declutter ...