Sustainable Growth:

Continuous Improvement Firm

Kaizen

The Japanese Strategy of Continuous Improvement

 lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen

By Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, The first-ever BUSINESS e-COACH, 1000ventures.com

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"Japanese management practices succeed simply because they are good management practices. This success has little to do with cultural factors. And the lack of cultural bias means that these practices can be – and are – just as successfully employed elsewhere."

Masaaki Imai

 

Kaizen Contiuous Improvement Firm Top Management Innovation Kaizen Innovation Kaizen Sustainable Competitive Advantage of US and Japanese Firms Continuous Improvement Firm Kaizen - Japanese Continuous Improvement Strategy

The Key Kaizen Practices

Mindset & Culture

  • customer orientation

  • quality control (QC) circles

  • suggestion system

  • discipline in the workplace

  • small-group activities

  • cooperative labor-management relations

  • total quality control (TQC)

  • quality improvement

Production Process

Kaizen's Starting Point:

Setting the Right Mindset & Business Environment

  • not a single day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company

  • customer-driven strategy for improvement - any management activity should eventually lead to increased customer satisfaction

  • quality first, not profit first - an enterprise can prosper only if customers who purchase its products or services are satisfied

  • recognition that any corporation has problems and establishing a corporate culture where everyone can freely admit these problems and suggest improvement

  • problem solving is seen as cross-functional systemic and collaborative approach

  • emphasis on process - establishing a way of thinking oriented at improving processes, and a management system that supports and acknowledges people's process-oriented efforts for improvement... More

 

 

Kaizen and Innovation New Product Development Synergy Sustainabe Competitive Advantage US ans Japanese Firms Radical Innovation Kaizen Continuous Improvement Firm (CIF) Radical vs. Incremental Innovation Kaizen Radical Innovation New Product Design Technology Innovation Lean Production Kaizen and Radical Innovation

 Discover much more!

Quick and Easy Kaizen

Kaizen Mindset

Japanese-style Suggestion System

9 Waste Categories and 6 Guidelines of the Canon's Suggestion System

Five Ss at Canon

Kaizen and Total Quality Management (TQM)

Kaizen and Innovation

Lean Production

7 Principles of Toyota Production System (TPS)

5 Elements of Enabling a Lean Approach

10 Commandments of Improvement

Quality Management

Deming's 14 Point Plan for TQM

14 Slogans for TQM at Pentel, Japan

Business Processes

Enterprise-wide Business Process Management (EBPM)

8 Essential Principles of EBPM

Using Best Practice: The Trotter Scorecard

Ten3 Global Business Learning Report

Business Processes

Free Ten3 Micro-courses

Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing

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Synergizing Business Processes  (60 slides)

Synergizing Value Chain  (200 slides)

Smart Business Architect  (150 slides)

Cultural Intelligence & Modern Management  (e-Book)

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen means "improvement". Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone in the organization – managers and workers alike.

Kaizen and Management

Management has two major components:

  1. maintenance, and

     
  2. improvement.

The objective of the maintenance function is to maintain current technological, managerial, and operating standards. The improvement function is aimed at improving current standards.

Under the maintenance function, the management must first establish policies, rules, directives and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and then work towards ensuring that everybody follows SOP. The latter is achieved through a combination of discipline and human resource development measures.

Under the improvement function, management works continuously towards revising the current standards, once they have been mastered, and establishing higher ones. Improvement can be broken down between innovation and Kaizen. Innovation involves a drastic improvement in the existing process and requires large investments. Kaizen signifies small improvements as a result of coordinated continuous efforts by all employees.

Process-Oriented Thinking vs. Result-Oriented Thinking

Kaizen concentrates at improving the process rather than at achieving certain results. Such managerial attitudes and process thinking make a major difference in how an organization masters change and achieves improvements.

 Case in Point  Kaizen Time at Canon

In some Canon plants, the foremen are told to set aside the half-hour as Kaizen time – time to do nothing but thinking improvement in the workshop. The foremen use this period to identify problems and work on Kaizen programs. Factories are advised not to hold meetings during this 30-minute period, and foremen should not even answer the telephone then... More

Five Ss at Canon

Canon has an ongoing workplace improvement program called the Five Ss. The Five Ss refer to the five dimensions of of workplace optimization: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), and Shitsuke (Sustain)... More

 Case in Point  7 Principles of Toyota Production System

  • Employee Involvement and Empowerment: Toyota organized their workers by forming teams and gave them the responsibility and training to do many specialized tasks. Teams are also given responsibility for housekeeping and minor equipment repair. Each team has a leader who also works as one of them on the line.

  • .. More

Employee Empowerment: the Suggestion System

The suggestion system is an integral part of an established management system that aims at involving employees in Kaizen. The number of worker's suggestions is regarded as an important criteria in reviewing the performance of the worker's supervisor and the manager of the supervisor.

The Japanese management encourages employees to generate a great number of suggestions and works hard to consider and implement these suggestions, often incorporating them into the overall Kaizen strategy. Management also gives due recognition to employee's efforts for improvement. An important aspect of the suggestion system is that each suggestion, once implemented, leads to an upgraded standard.

 

Quality control (QC) circles can be viewed as a group-oriented suggestion system for making improvements. QC circle is a small group that voluntarily performs quality-control activities in the workplace.

Total quality control (TQC) involves everyone in the organization and is aimed at improvement of managerial performance at all levels.

Quick and Easy Kaizen

Quick and Easy Kaizen  (or Mini-Kaizen) is aimed at increasing productivity, quality, and worker satisfaction, all from a very grassroots level. Every company employee is encouraged to come up with ideas – however small – that could improve his/her particular job activity, job environment or any company process for that matter. The employees are also encouraged to implement their ideas as small changes can be done by the worker him or herself with very little investment of time.

Quick and easy Kaizen helps eliminate or reduce wastes, promotes personal growth of employees and the company, provides guidance for employees, and serves as a barometer of leadership. Each kaizen may be small, but the cumulative effect is tremendous.

The quick and easy kaizen process works as follows:

  1. The employee notices a problem or an opportunity for improvement... More

Balanced Organization: 5 Basic Elements

Performance Management (Water):

3 Stages of the Suggestion System

1. Encouragement. In the first stage, management should make every effort to help the workers provide suggestions, no matter how primitive, for the betterment of the worker's job and the workshop. This will help the workers look at the way they are doing their jobs... More

Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing

Kaizen is the heart of Lean Manufacturing (also known as the Toyota Production System). Toyota states: "...based on the concept of continuous improvement, or Kaizen, every Toyota team member is empowered with the ability to improve their work environment. This includes everything from quality and safety to the environment and productivity. Improvements and suggestions by team members are the cornerstone of Toyota's success."... More

8 Best Practices of Successful Companies

  • Value incremental gains... More

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

  1. Kaizen: The Key To Japan's Competitive Success, Masaaki Imai

  2. Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management, Masaaki Imai

  3. Lean Manufacturing That Works, Bill Carreira

  4. The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker

  5. The Lean Manufacturing Pocket Handbook, Kenneth W. Dailey

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What is Kaizen – Implementation Steps Kaizen Blitz Roadblocks

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Kaizen Blitz

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