5S is easy to launch and hard to sustain. A red-tag exercise produces a visible improvement in a week, photographs get taken, and within three months the area has quietly returned to where it started.
The fifth S is the whole programme
Sort, Set, Shine and Standardize are the visible steps. Sustain is the one that decides whether any of it lasts, and it is almost always the one without an owner.
Build the audit before the launch
A short, recurring audit with a named owner and a visible score does more for sustainment than any amount of initial enthusiasm.
Let the floor set the standard
Visual standards written by the people who work in the area survive. Standards handed down from an office do not.