Kaizen: Concepts and
Systems
Kaizen Concepts
• a Japanese word meaning “continuous improvement”
• Two characters, kai= change; zen = good
• It is used to describe a company culture where everyone, from the CEO to
the front desk clerk, regularly evaluates his work and thinks of ways to
improve it.
• The concept is that small steps on a customary basis will lead to
improvements in due course.
Two Types of Kaizen
• Gemba Kaizen (actual workplace)- is an action-oriented approach and
refers to improvement activities that are carried out in actual workplace.
• Teian Kaizen (plan)- represents a theory based approach and refers to
strategic improvements that are prejudiced by top management.
Kaizen and Management
2 major components of Management
• Maintenance function is to maintain current technological, managerial,
and operating standards. -The management must first establish policies,
rules, directives and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Improvement function is aimed at improving current standards. -
management works constantly towards modifying the existing standards,
ones they have been mastered, and establishing higher ones.
Roles of a Manager
• The role of a manager is to act as a facilitator at the workplace. It is the
duty of a manager to assist employees in implementing TQM. It is also his
responsibility to choose and assign right individuals who can work as line
managers and take charge of the whole project
• A manager must communicate the benefits of total quality management to
all other members of the organization. Call employees on a common
platform and address the benefits and importance of TQM. Make them
understand how successful implementation of TQM programs would give
way to high quality products.
PDCA/SDCA Cycles
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and Standardize-Do-Check-Act (SDCA)- cycles that involve
processes for improvement and for maintenance.
When improving processes the following are the phases:
1. Planning Phase - is the most vital phase of total quality management. In this
phase employees have to come up with their problems and queries which need to be
addressed.
2. Doing Phase - employees develop a solution for the problems defined in planning
phase. Strategies are devised and implemented to overcome the challenges faced by
employees.
3. Checking Phase - is the stage where people actually do a comparison analysis of before
and after data to confirm the effectiveness of the processes and measure the results.
4. Acting Phase- in this phase employees document the results and prepare themselves to
address other problems
Standard is the best, safest and easiest way, to achieve and maintain a
defined quality level.
Standards should be:
1. Be simple, clear and conspicuous
2. Be the best, easiest, safest way - should only have one at a time
3. Preserve know – how
4. Be guide-lines that enable performance
5. Measurement of tasks delegated
6. Assure quality, cost, delivery, and safety
7. Show relationship between cause and effect
With standards:
1. Management becomes possible
2. There is a basis for training
3. There is a basis for audit or diagnosis
4. Problems are prevented from recurring and control variability
Putting Quality First About performance in terms of three dimensions (QCD)
QUALITY - The most essential criteria of customers.
COST - Manufacturer’s viewpoint as the overall cost of making and selling a
product.
DELIVERY - Bringing the necessary quantity of product in the right place at
the right time.
LIFEBLOOD OF KAIZEN
A Problem solving process or correcting the problem in a process ; The next
process is the customer; means that all works think that the next process is
the customers.
Types of customer
• Internal customers
• External customers
Just-In-Time (JIT) Production System
Elements of JIT
1. Make stable and level master production schedule (MPS)
2. Decrease or eliminates setup times.
3. Trim down lot sizes
4. Shrink lead times
5. Preventive maintenance
6. Flexible work force
7. Oblige supplier quality assurance and execute a zero defect quality
program
Reason for a move from batch mode to just in time
1. Batch production system is the most inefficient way to make products.
2. Difficult to meet customers requirements.
3. The batch system derives from the agricultural mentality.
4. This kind of system is based on market projection is good when there is
demand.
5. End up with large inventory of unsold products and overload capacity.
Total Productive Maintenance
• System of maintaining and improving the integrity of production and
quality system through
machines.
-is attributed to nippondenso, a company that created parts for Toyota and
was awarded by Japanese Institute of Plant Engineer (JIPE) to increase the
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
-one of the main objectives of TPM is to increase the productivity.
-modern Japanese concept 1951
Seiichi Nakajima -The father of TPM, because of his numerous contribution
to TPM
Eight Pillars of TPM
1. Focused improvement
2. Autonomous maintenance
3. Planned maintenance
4. Quality maintenance
5. Cost deployment
6. Early equipment management
7. Training and education
8. Safety health environment
TYPES OF MAINTENANCE
Breakdown maintenance- means that people waits until equipment fails and repair it.
Preventive Maintenance- it is a daily maintenance
PERIODIC MAINTENANCE (TIME BASED MAINTENANCE (TBM)
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE (THE LIMIT OF THEIR SERVICE LIFE
CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE - it improves equipment
MAINTENANCE PREVENTION - -it indicates the design of new equipments
Policy Development
- people follow policies, good or bad.
- it needs to state the level of defects or errors that is acceptable.
- the policy also needs to state the relationship between the company and
the customer.
- ones the policy is written, management needs to determine how to
explain it to employees.
Suggestion System
- is regarded as individual-oriented kaizen
- encourages all workers to talk about their suggestions orally with
supervisors and put them into
action right away, even before submitting suggestion form.
- is an integral part of an established management system that aims at
involving employees in Kaizen
Three 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 workers job
and the workshop.
2. Education - in the second stage, management should stress employee so that employees
can provide better suggestion.
3. Efficiency - only in the third stage, after the workers are both interested and educated,
should management be concerned with the economic impact of the suggestions
Benefits of a suggestion system
Here are the benefits of a suggestion system, namely:
1. Important ones own work and the working environment
2. Engages and empowers employees
3. Creates ownership and trust
4. Improves motivation and morale
5. Improves customer satisfaction
6. Improves profitability
For a suggestion system to be successful and effective, the following factors have to be
considered:
1. Formation of a suggestion committee to plan and manage the suggestions system
2. Defining the suggestion process, including a feedback system
3. Promoting the suggestion system
4. Evaluation system
5. Award system
6. Sustaining the suggestions system
Most suggestions remain to be suggestions because of:
1. Delay in approving ideas
2. Complex approval process (committees)
3. Backlog of suggestions needing approval or implementation
4. Less that 90% of ideas implemented
5. Inappropriate kaizen suggestions
6. Allowing anonymous suggestions
7. Unfair rewards
8. Motivating by clash only
9. Lack of promotion and support of the kaizen suggestion program
10. Lack of timely implementation