Kaizen
Kaizen and continuous improvement
Kaizen is the Japanese term for continuous improvement within a business, operations or productive process. Kaizen seeks a continuous improvement in all aspects of a productive process from raw material sourcing and usage to production methods. The Kaizen term is most commonly referred to focus projects or initiatives aiming at tackling and improving process issues. It is one of the most important terms in lean manufacturing and operations management as it should be at the top of the priority list for most business leaders and mangers to sustain a competitive advantage in their marketplace and become leaders in their industry.
Kaizen seeks continuous improvement not only in plant OEE performance or profitability but in all areas of the business and operations. Kaizen seeks to involve teams composed of diverse members that are able to provide their experiences and knowledge to achieve solutions to continually improve the problems faced. Teams should include process operators and supervisors who work in the production process which can contribute valuable insights and ideas in achieving meaningful solutions.
Kaizen focus areas
Some of the areas where kaizen activities and programs are more commonly implemented and can be of great benefit include:
-Individual plant and machinery performance including throughput and reliability
-Entire production lines including bottlenecks , production rates, changeovers, etc
-Raw material procurement and utilization
-Labour utilization
–Communication including Andon systems
–Quality
-Production processes and tasks
–Housekeeping and 5S
–Inventory management and control
– inventory costs and warehousing.
–supply chain management
Among other areas
Kaizen uses many different lean manufacturing and problem analysis tools, techniques, communication and interaction methods such as Kaizen boards, data collection and analysis, root cause analysis, process flow charts, pareto charts, fishbone diagrams, 5 why’s among other to achieve sustainable improvements and efficiencies using the same or less amount of inputs into the productive process.
Kaizen is not only limited to manufacturing or production processes but can be applied to any process in any industry just like the many lean methodologies. The principles are quite transferable from industry to industry as the end game is to make better use of inputs to achieve better more efficient outputs through a focused team approach.
Kaizen initiatives and framework
There are many different ways to foster a continuous improvement culture and focus within the business and staff. It greatly depends on the industry, staff experience, and availability of resources, manager’s preferences and motivation to achieve improvements by everyone. There is no right way of structuring a kaizen activity, kaizen strategy or initiative, what is important is that there is a clear framework the whole team understands and can easily follow through in order to achieve sustainable results.
Some general Kaizen general frameworks can include:
-Individual specific projects run by team leaders or managers
-Focused initiatives run by managers in conjunction with team members
-Team member initiated kaizen initiatives supported by managers
-Kaizen blitzes in specific areas
-Larger scale kaizen projects involving all staff
Some of these kaizen frameworks can be aided by external resources such as operations or lean consultants which can both structure the projects and help staff with the documentation, guidance, and execution of new improvement strategies. Like any other initiative or project management must fully support any type of kaizen activity and take the time to engrain it into the business’ culture.
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