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Inspection template in the LeanSuite app

Last reviewed

Housekeeping inspection checklist

A housekeeping inspection checklist is a short weekly walk of one work area to see whether floors, storage and equipment are kept the way the area standard says. This one has 10 questions in three groups: floors and walkways (debris, clear exits, spills), storage (items in their places, nothing stacked unsafely on the floor, scrap in the right bins), and equipment and surfaces (clean machines and benches, tools returned, readable signs, cleaning supplies stocked).

A supervisor or 5S lead can run it in the middle of a shift, which is the point: it shows the area as people work in it, not after a clean-up. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.22(a) asks for walking and working surfaces to be kept clean, orderly and free of hazards such as spills. A failed check looks like a puddle of coolant beside a lathe with cardboard thrown on it, scrap bins overflowing into the aisle, and a pallet of parts left in front of an exit. For a full scored audit of each S, use the 5S audit checklist.

What it is for, as built: A quick housekeeping inspection of any work area. Use it weekly.

Use this template in LeanSuite

The full question list

The 10 questions in the inspection

Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A. Each No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, so the finding arrives with its evidence.

Floors and walkways

  1. 1Floors are clean and free of debris
  2. 2Walkways and exits are clear
  3. 3Spills are cleaned straight away

Storage

  1. 4Items are stored in their places
  2. 5Materials are off the floor and not stacked unsafely
  3. 6Waste and scrap are in the right containers and bins are emptied

Equipment and surfaces

  1. 7Machines and benches are clean
  2. 8Tools are returned after use
  3. 9Lights, signs and notice boards are in good condition
  4. 10Cleaning supplies are available

Worked example, illustrative

A filled-in example

One section as it might be filled in on the floor, with every other section of the inspection answered Yes. The place and finding are made up to show how the inspection reads and scores.

Result: pass, 90% against a pass mark of 90

  • 10 questions, all of them count.
  • 1 answered No, so 9 of 10 are Yes: 9 ÷ 10 = 90%.
  • 90% is at or above 90, so the inspection passes. The No still needs its fix.

What happened next: Operator cleaned it with absorbent during the walk. Maintenance checked the lathe coolant return the next day and replaced a split hose.

Scored here as one point per question with N/A left out. In the app each answer carries the points set on the template, so change them after you clone it if your plant weighs some checks more.

Housekeeping Inspection

Inspection, weekly

Area
Machine shop, line 2

Floors and walkways

  1. Floors are clean and free of debrisYes
  2. Walkways and exits are clearYes
  3. Spills are cleaned straight awayNo

    Comment: Coolant puddle beside lathe 3 with cardboard thrown over it. No absorbent used and the leak is still dripping.

    Photo attached to the No

Drawn from this template's own questions, not a screenshot of the app. Illustrative answers.

When to use it

  • Once a week.
  • The person responsible for the area or equipment answers each question on the spot.
  • Each record starts with: Area.

How it is scored

The template is built with points per answer and a pass mark of 90. In this library every audit is set to pass at 80 and every inspection at 90. Each submitted inspection shows its score and pass or fail, and every No is flagged with its photo and comment.

Change the points or the pass mark after you clone it. How rules and scoring work.

Read and print

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FAQ

Housekeeping inspection checklist: common questions

  1. Weekly per area as built, in the middle of a shift so you see the area as people work in it. Walk it again after a changeover or a large job, after a spill or a slip near miss, during peak production weeks, after a layout change, and when a new team or supervisor takes over the area and the standard has to be relearned.

  2. A supervisor or 5S lead, and it helps if they are not from the area they are scoring. They need the area standard: floor markings, shadow boards, bin locations and the cleaning schedule. The area manager reviews the score and the open items, and a blocked exit or an uncleaned spill is fixed before the inspector leaves.

  3. A fail means someone can slip, trip or find an exit blocked, and the area standard is not being held. Clean the spill and clear the exit before you move on. Items that keep coming back, such as overflowing scrap bins, need a change to bin size or emptying frequency with an owner and a date. In this template every No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, and an inspection that scores under its pass mark of 90 is a fail.

  4. Keep the area, date, a photo of each finding and of the fix, who cleared it and when, and the score. The weekly trend by area is the useful part: a finding that repeats three weeks running is a process gap, not a tidiness gap, and the record is what gets the process changed. In LeanSuite each submitted inspection is stored with its score, its pass or fail, and the photo and comment on every No.

  5. 10 questions in 3 sections: floors and walkways, storage, and equipment and surfaces. Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A.

Use this template in LeanSuite

It is ready in the Template Marketplace inside Lean Creator as “Housekeeping Inspection”. Clone it into your plant, change any question, then schedule it to a person, role or asset with reminders. Auditors complete it on a phone or tablet, with photo evidence where required.

Not on LeanSuite yet? On a 90-day pilot our team sets up your account and digitizes the forms and checklists you use today, this one included.

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