Group items tagged

Too often [kaizen] has come to mean assembling a special team for a project using lean of Six Sigma methods, or perhaps organizing a kaizen "event" for a week to make a burst of changes. We sometimes hear the phrase "doing a kaizen" as if it were a one-off activity. At Toyota, kaizen […] is how the company operates at the most fundamental level.

Real Kaizen thinking is based on making these little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.  The western philosophy is often summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." However, the Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."

In this article, he shares a simple and effective application of Kaizen and the Kaizen frame of mind to a common activity in business meetings: drinking coffee.

"Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great." - John D. Rockefeller An essential element in Lean thinking is Kaizen.  Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement or change for the better.  As no process can ever be declared perfect, there is always room for improvement.  Kaizen involves building on gains by continuing experimentation and innovation. The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as: Standardize process Measure the standardized process Analyze measurements against requirements Innovate to meet requirements and increase productivity Standardize the new, improved process Continue cycle infinitely Kaizen involves every employee - from upper management to operators. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.  The western philosophy is often summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." However, the Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."

"Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great." - John D. Rockefeller

Kaizen as a methodology has the ability to speed up that change process and more importantly finalize the solutions into standardized processes expeditiously. This benefits the organization by not having "floating" processes in place and the end-user by making a seamless process easy to use. Kaizen does this by having a structured approach, with specific deliverables, and ownership of the changes after the Kaizen is completed.

One of the foundational principles of kaizen is that one takes many small steps toward the ideal condition, continually. The strength of this approach is that by keeping the steps small it is both psychologically and physically easier to take action, causing a positive feedback loop as people are encouraged to take more small steps. However there are also weakness with kaizen as improving in small steps.

Some good tips for Kaizen. We'll incorporate these into our Kaizen Facilitator training.

A common response is "Mark, that makes sense… but we just don't have time…." I'd like to make the case that "lack of time" should not be an excuse that shuts down the possibility for Kaizen, but rather it's the first problem statement to which we can apply our Kaizen thinking…

Great headline!

And since Kaizen is currently not just a philosophical concept, but a rigorous methodology, we should also look at the Kaizen improvement cycle. It can be broken down into 6 steps that should be repeated continuously:

Repeat...repeat... repeat the cycle by making another small, incremental improvement.

Great Kaizen in the POD Area

We could learn so much from this company.  Do kaizen first, then work.  So simple, extremely powerful.  Why didn't I think of it?  How could we start?

Do Kaizen 1st. Are we ready to do this? It is on the agenda to figure it out!

I am ready. Let's go!

Does this cause us to re-think the way we do Kaizen?

Where is the gap? Creating a persistent continuous improvement mentality rather than a Kaizen "event" mentality?

I think that is what he is trying to communicate. However, I believe that there is room for both approaches.

How could we use this? Too often 5S, kaizen, standardization and checking our own work or the work of others begins with enthusiasm as a new management program but soon becomes a routine and neglected "nice to have". Putting 5S and kaizen together as the "6T practice" positions them as essential daily "must haves" behaviors. Placing the record of completing these duties on the clip board on the food service floor within reach of the customer is an excellent way to link practice with purpose.

Does kaizen require volunteerism to reach the highest level of success? Or does it require management mandated 100% participation? What if you are just starting an effort to have people in your organization formally improve their work? Do you recruit volunteers, or mandate improvement by each and every person? Does this evolve into an act of coercion, where people are not fully engaged with the act of continuous improvement - but only doing so to keep the boss off their backs?

This is an intriguing thought. 5 one day kaizen events vice 1 5 day event. Goes along with out quest to "Do Kaizen first".

Interesting...

Are Kaizen events simply work-arounds?

I understand the reasoning, but disagree with the premise. Workshops are a unique tool, because of the focused time over days to work on an item.

Good video on Kaizen

Some Kaizen Charter advice

Couldn't resist posting a cartoon on Kaizen. In what ways do we exhibit this behavior?

I think that kaizen activities flourish at the intersection of Autonomy, Courage, and Knowledge.