Continuous Improvement (KAIZEN)

Some more definitions - Links to the Web:

1. Kaizen PPT
2. A short presentation on the concept of KAIZEN !!!

Essence of Lean/Kaizen

Lean/Kaizen Strategy

Lean/Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone in the organization. It must cover each and every aspect of organization.

Sustaining the Lean/Kaizen effort and overcoming inertia requires that management fulfills the following essential requirements

1. Top Management Commitment - in the form of seriousness to implement Lean/Kaizen.
2. Top Management Commitment - in the form of support. This would include providing necessary support & infrastructure and means whatever, is needed to implement Lean/Kaizen.
3. Top Management Commitment - in the form of physical involvement and by being present in taking part in actual activities, such as, Lean/Kaizen Events etc.
4. Setting up an organization dedicated to promote Lean/Kaizen,
5. Selection and deployment of the best available personnel with necessary skills to manage the Lean/Kaizen process,
6. Creating the long term organizational vision and imparting training and education, complete with hands-on experience. Provide for constant mentoring throughout the process of implementation.
7. Establishing a step-by-step process for Lean/Kaizen Introduction and monitoring. Making it easy for everyone to understand the targets and progress of the Lean/Kaizen process enhances total involvement in the improvement process.

Management commitment is the essential ingredient in creating and maintaining the drive for improvements and Top management defines the company’s objectives, set priorities and monitor the success of Lean implementation. Lean will not work as a process bolted on to the company. It has to be fully integrated into the way the company is managed. Without top management commitment, support and involvement the Lean/Kaizen trial will be short-lived regardless of other preconditions.

One of the most difficult aspects of introducing and implementing Kaizen strategy is assuring its sustenance. In absence of sustenance management will keep looking for a new flavor of the month.

If the organization lacks the first three most important conditions for the successful introduction and implementation of Lean/Kaizen strategy sustenance will be questionable.

Top management may express commitment in many different ways, and it must take every opportunity to preach the message, become personally involved in following up the progress of Kaizen, and allocate resources for successful implementation.

A word of CAUTION!!! - Involvement 'IS NOT ' Direction, Suggestion or Advice.

Lean/Kaizen Mindset

Lean/Kaizen Mindset is Lean/Kaizen's Starting Point. It sets the right mindset and business environment in an organization which is embarked upon taking up Continuous Improvement Program (CIP)

1. Everything can and should be improved. (Some Japanese managers go as far as to say to their subordinates, "Regard whatever you do now as the 'worst' way to do your job.")
2. Not a single day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.
3. Don't just criticize, suggest an improvement.
4. Think beyond common sense. Encourage thinking outside the box. Challenge assumptions. Even if something is working, try to find the ways to make it work even better. Ask searching questions.
5. Customer-driven strategy for improvement – any management activity should eventually lead to increased customer satisfaction.
6. Imagine the ideal customer experience and strive to provide it. Address customer at every step.
7. Quality first, not profit first – an enterprise can prosper only if customers who purchase its products or services are satisfied.
8. Recognize that all organizations have problems and establish an organization culture where everyone can freely admit problems and suggest improvement.
9. Think of how to improve it instead of why it can't be improved.
10. See problem solving as cross-functional collaborative and systemic approach.
11. Emphasis on process – establish a way of thinking oriented at improving processes, and a management system that supports and acknowledges people's process-oriented efforts for improvement.
12. Start with scarcity. It's hard to see the need for Lean/Kaizen when resources are plentiful.
13. When there is a worker or supplier performance problem, don't replace them. Keep them and help them improve instead.

Ten Lean/Kaizen Commandments

1. Throw out all your fixed ideas about how to do things.
2. Think of how the new method will work-not how it won’t.
3. Don’t accept excuses. Totally deny the status quo.
4. Don’t jump to perfection. A 50-percent implementation rate is fine as long as it’s done on the spot.
5. Correct the mistakes the moment they’re found.
6. Don’t spend money on improvements.
7. Problems give you a chance to use your brain.
8. Ask “Why?” at least 5 times until you find the ultimate cause.
9. Ten peoples’ ideas are better than one person’s.
10. Improvement knows no limit.

GO TOP

Read on Continuous Improvement and Kaizen

1. Kaizen - The Japanese Strategy of Continuous Improvement
2. Rapid Improvement Events
3. Kaizen PPT
4. A short presentation on the concept of KAIZEN !!!