Free lean training game · Play online or print the card
The 5S Numbers Game: cross out 1 to 49 — and feel the workplace change.
The 5S numbers game is the classic exercise for teaching Sort, Set in Order, and search waste — one sheet of scattered numbers, a 30-second clock, and a score that climbs as the sheet gets 5S’d. Run it right here with a facilitator mode built for projecting to a room, beat the clock yourself, or print the free card and run it at a table.
- Time
- 10–15 min
- People
- Solo to a full room
- Teaches
- Sort · Set in Order · Standardize
- Cost
- Free, no signup
| Round | Sheet | Workplace state | Score |
|---|
Projecting for a workshop? Choose “Run it for a room” — one volunteer clicks while everyone hunts out loud, with a prediction stop, a round scoreboard, and a facilitator question bank one click away. The ⛶ button goes fullscreen.
What is the 5S numbers game?
The 5S numbers game (sometimes called the numbers exercise) is a hands-on 5S training activity that makes search waste visible in under a minute. The task never changes: cross out the numbers 1 to 49 in order, as far as you can in 30 seconds. What changes is the workplace— the sheet itself. Round 1 is chaos: numbers at every size and angle, mixed with junk numbers you don't need. Round 2 is the same sheet with the junk removed. Round 3 is the same 49 numbers in a tidy grid.
Typical scores: low teens in round 1, 20s–30s in round 2, and 45 or better in round 3 — with many people finishing all 49 before the clock runs out. Nobody got smarter between rounds. The workplace changed, not the worker — which is the whole point, and why the game has opened 5S workshops for decades.
How to run it at a table
What you need
- Three sheets per person — a marker and a photocopier is all it takes. Sheet A: 1–49 scattered at random angles and sizes, mixed with junk numbers 50–90. Sheet B: the same scatter with the junk removed. Sheet C: 1–49 in a tidy grid, reading left to right.
- A pen for everyone and a timer — 30 seconds per round.
- Score = the highest number reached. No peeking at the next sheet before its round.
Keep the energy up
Call scores out loud after each round and write the room's average on a flip chart. The rising line is the whole lesson. Before round 1, ask the room to predict how far the score will climb by round 3 — most rooms guess “double”, and most rooms are still short.
What will happen
| Round | Workplace state | Typical score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Sheet A | Cluttered + junk | Low teens |
| 2 · Sheet B | Junk sorted out | 20s–30s |
| 3 · Sheet C | Set in order | 45+, often finished |
Same task, same person, same 30 seconds. The gap between round 1 and round 3 is pure search waste.
What the 5S numbers game teaches
- Search waste is real and huge. In round 1, most of the 30 seconds goes to hunting, not crossing out. The work was never the bottleneck — the finding was.
- Sort comes first. Between Sheets A and B, nothing was added and nothing moved — things were only taken away. The score still climbs, because every junk number you no longer have to read is time back.
- Set in Order does the heavy lifting. Sheet C holds the same 49 numbers, but the layout does the work: upright, uniform, reading left to right. That's a place for everything, and everything in its place.
- The standard matters more than the cleanup. Round 3 only works because every sheet is laid out the same way, every time. A one-off tidy-up decays; a standard layout keeps paying.
Tabletop variations worth running
These two are on the printable card for the paper version — the digital version deliberately leaves them out and keeps to the three core rounds.
- The Shine round.Run Sheet C again as a photocopy-of-a-photocopy — smudged and faint. Scores fall: a workplace that isn't maintained gives back its gains.
- Talent vs. system. Your fastest performer plays Sheet A against the room on Sheet C. The system wins — every time.
Debrief questions
- In round 1, what were you actually doing most of the time?
- What are our “junk numbers” — things stored where we work that we never use?
- What would Sheet C look like for our bench, our supply room, our shared drive?
- Round 3 only works because every sheet is laid out the same. Why does the standard matter more than the cleanup?
- Make it stick: which workspace gets the Sheet C treatment first — and what standard keeps it that way next month?
Print it and run it at a table
The 5S Numbers Game — printable facilitator card
One page, print-and-go: how to make the three sheets, the round table with typical scores, both tabletop variations, and the debrief script. Part of the free Kaizumi lean game library — one email unlocks all four cards.
Letter-size, print-ready, readable in black and white.
5S numbers game FAQ
How long does the 5S numbers game take?
10–15 minutes including the debrief: three 30-second rounds, a moment to compare scores between them, and five to ten minutes of discussion. The online version runs a full facilitated session in about ten minutes.
How many people do you need?
Any number — solo to a full room. At a table everyone plays their own sheets at once. With the online facilitator mode, one volunteer clicks while the whole room hunts out loud, so a single screen serves any group size.
Do I need to print anything?
Not for the online version. For the tabletop version, three sheets per person — a marker and a photocopier is all it takes to make them, and the printable facilitator card has the full instructions and script.
What is the difference between the online version and the tabletop version?
The online version runs the three core rounds with a prediction stop, a scoreboard, and a debrief built in. The tabletop version adds two variations the digital sheet deliberately leaves out — the Shine round and talent vs. system — both on the printable card.
Is this really free?
Yes. The game runs in your browser with no signup. The printable card asks for an email address, and the whole lean game library comes with it.
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