ivisional Secretariat are service organizations functioning under the Public Administrative rule and regulations of Sri Lanka. The divisional secretariat of Nintavur consists 25 Grama Niladhari sections. The Divisional Secretariat offers services such as civil registrations, issuing licenses, issuing certificates, land, providing social services, issuing tenders and implementing development projects. The divisions of Nintavur divisional secretariat are administrative division, social service division, planning division, land division, account division, registration division and pension division etc.

Becoming successful and pioneer organization in the complex, challenging and technological world is crucial at present. This movement can be achieved by applying best practices and benchmarking procedures. Every organization should select the best practices to achieve their goals and objectives energetically. Also judging and evaluating standards of performance is often important. Such evaluations are assisting to the organizations to consider the shortcomings in the performance and lead to enhance the performance. According to Albarico et al. (2016), an increasing number of companies and organizations that implement 5S practice, as one of the techniques adapted to achieve quality, has to be evaluated to identify the company's position on the implementation. Singh and Ahuja (2014) indicated that5S is a disciplined approach to keep the workplace clean and organized to improve productivity and quality.

Divisional secretariats are the public service organization that provides core public services to the public. The public has a close relationship with Divisional secretariat offices since they are dealing with Divisional secretariat offices for obtaining most of the livelihood services. Also, educated and uneducated people are coming to Divisional secretariat offices to obtain their livelihood services. Therefore, the Divisional secretariat offices should maintain on-time, effective, efficient, and quality services to the public since the Divisional secretariat offices provide essential services to the public. (Sati, 2019) indicated that 5S is an integrated way to improve productivity. It is a complete culture that increases productivity, improves quality, reduces cost, makes on-time delivery, improves safety, and improves morale.

Therefore, it is essential to adopt the '5S' system in the Divisional secretariat to maintain the quality services within the office system such as filing, storage, cleaning, on-time service, etc. to improve the office performance.

5S can be seen as a set of rules for the workplace designed to create a healthy and productive work atmosphere and to carry out business activities morale, and improve the productivity of employees (Todorovic & Cupic, 2017).

The five 5S pillars are usually referred to as (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain). 5S systematically and steadily applying the workplace housekeeping process to preserve an organization's structure and standardization. A well-organized workplace motivates individuals to use diverse tools effectively and efficiently at all levels of management (Sanmuganathan et al., 2014).

Ghodrati and Zulkifli (2013) indicated that 5S is technique. Five Japanese terms are used by organizations to routinely use 5S; Seiri (sort), Seiton (set in order), Seiso (shine), Seiketsu (standardize), and Shitsuke (sustain). By controlling a structured environment, this system helps to coordinate a workplace for efficiency and minimize waste and maximize output and productivity Sanmuganathan et al. (2014) described the 5S concepts as follows;

? Sort -the first step in making things cleaned up and organized. ? Set in Order-organize, identify and arrange everything in a work area. ? Shine-regular cleaning and maintenance.

? Standardize -make it easy to maintain-simplify and standardize. ? Sustain-maintaining what has been accomplished. The 5S concept is easy for understand because: It does not require the understanding of difficult terminologies. It is simple, driven by logic and natural to human behavior. It is within the reach of all types and sizes of industries or organizations. (Singh & Ahuja, 2014).

5S will be needed if the workplace is messy and unorganized. It will also be needed if employees spend extra time in searching tools, papers, information, etc. (Ennin et al., 2012).

Marshettiwar and Sang ode (2018) indicated the followings are benefits of "5S" system.

? Discarding the unnecessary items from the necessary items reduces wastage of time due to waiting time and motion. ? Ensures that components, equipment, tools, machines, people etc. are located in the most ergonomic and thus efficient safe positions. ? Ensures that the workplace remains neat and clean thereby helping the operators to identify major faults and reasons for the breakdown in the machine. ? Assures that the work of the organization is done in a standard way that implements the most efficient work method with clear standards. ? Ensures that the 5S methodology is implemented for the long run thereby making improvements for the organization through the constant involvement of the staff.

IV.

The objective of the study is to examine the level of 5S system in Divisional Secretariat, Nintavur.

V.

The Divisional Secretariat includes 262 staff in different categories such as Staff Offices -6, Public Management Assistant -24, Grama Niladhari -18, Field Staff -26, Development Officer -82, Samurdhi Staff -46, Office Employee Servant -7, Watcher -3, Driver -1, Graduate Trainees -49.

The study was conducted among the employees in Divisional secretariat in Nintavur. One hundred employees were selected as the sample population using random sampling method.

The major tool of data collection of this study was the modified questionnaire of Asphipaoloye and Menez (2013) as cited in Albarico et al (2016). It consists of25 statements about 5S system. Three statements were on the demographic details of the respondents namely sex, department or branch and type of position of respondent. The responses for each question were provided scores ranging from 1-5 (1-Strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly agree).

The questionnaire was distributed to the employees of Divisional secretariat in Nintavur. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed and 100 filled questionnaires were collected giving an overall response rate of 100 percent.

The scope of the study was limited to the employees from the divisional secretariat, Nintavur.

As soon as the data collection was completed through questionnaire survey, each questionnaire was carefully scrutinized and confirmed that all the questionnaires received back had been filled properly. All returned questionnaires were transferred to worksheets by assigning scores. In coding data, response categories of the Likert Scale provided in the questionnaire were organized in the following way: VII.

According to the above table-5, the statement "Office supplies, equipment and other items are properly sorted and stored" (Q1) is found to have a mean score of 4.13. This value falls under the highest level of the above continuum.

The statement "Items not frequently used are appropriately stored" (Q2) is found to have a mean score of 4.03. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "Frequently used items are properly stored" (Q3) is found to have a mean score of 4.13. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "Only necessary items are found in the workplace" (Q4) is found to have a mean score of 4.20. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "Both items needed and not needed are clearly distinguished in the workplace" (Q5) is found to have a mean score of 3.93. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "There are safety signs showing possible hazards in the workplace" (Q6) is found to have a mean score of 3.09. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Color coding and other visual controls are used to set documents and files in order" (Q7) is found to have a mean score of 4.10. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "The use of visual control such as labeling is very visible in the workplace" (Q8) is found to have a mean score of 3.84. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "There are good storage Facilities" (Q9) is found to have a mean score of 3.62. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Important files are well documented, identified and stored correctly" (Q10) is found to have a mean score of 4.39. This value falls under the high level in continuum.

The statement "There are schedules for cleaning the workplace" (Q11) is found to have a mean score of 3.07. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Cleaning materials are sufficient enough to clean the work area" (Q12) is found to have a mean score of 3.51. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Each employee has his or her own cleaning schedules" (Q13) is found to have a mean score of 2.79. This value falls under the lowest level in continuum.

The statement "There are staff assigned to clean particular areas of the workplace" (Q14) is found to have a mean score of 3.79. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "There is a staff assigned to oversee the cleanliness of the work area" (Q15) is found to have a mean score of 3.25. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Rules and responsibilities are clearly spelt out by the management" (Q16) is found to have a mean score of 4.15. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "The different areas of the workplace are distinctly labeled" (Q17) is found to have a mean score of 4.66. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "All staff are conversant with 5S program" (Q18) is found to have a mean score of 4.07. This value falls under the highest level in continuum.

The statement "Standardization procedures are being introduced from time to time" (Q19) is found to have a mean score of 3.77. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Staff are encouraged to maintain a high level of standard in the workplace" (Q20) is found to have a mean score of 3.71. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "Areas for improvement and noted and acted upon" (Q21) is found to have a mean score of 3.93. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "5S checklist is provided during the implementation of the 5S" (Q22) is found to have a mean score of 3.41. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "There a regular auditing of the department to ensure compliance to 5S" (Q23) is found to have a mean score of 3.69. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "There are seminars and trainings conducted from time to time" (Q24) is found to have a mean score of 3.98. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

The statement "A staff is assigned to oversee the Compliance" (Q25) is found to have a mean score of 3.74. This value falls under the moderate level in continuum.

To measure 5S system, twenty-five questions were used. Based on the responses of 100 respondents, nine questions (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 Q7, Q10, Q16, Q17, Q18) recorded mean score under the high level, fifteen questions (Q5, Q6, Q8, Q9, Q11, Q12, Q14, Q15, Q19 Q20, Q21, Q22, Q23, Q24, Q25) recorded mean score under the moderate level and others (Q13) have fallen under lower level.

The overall mean score for 5S system is 3.5144. It's meant that level of 5S system implementation is at moderate level at Divisional Secretariat, Nintavur.

Based on the views of divisional secretariat employees, the following recommendations are suggested to strengthen the 5S concept for office performance.

? Conducting the 5S system awareness program for employees ? Progress of the 5S system execution should be continuously observed. IX.

This study aimed to measure the level of the 5S system in the Divisional Secretariat, Nintavur. Since the Divisional secretariat office is the government office, the employees have to adapt the 5S system to eliminate wasted time, wasted space, and wasted inventory raises product quality, and improves work productivity, resulting in lower costs and higher efficiencies. Adopting the proper 5S strategy allows the Divisional Secretariat, Nintavur to function at peak capacity with minimal interruptions in service.