Kaizen 101
Kaizen is a term used by practitioners to mean a variety of things. But what does it really mean? What is the essence of Kaizen and what types of initiatives does it create? I will give you my take on Kaizen as a LEAN Six Sigma practitioner and consultant to various companies across the US as well as a simple primer of the Kaizen. Hope you enjoy it…
Why use Japanese Terminology?
Personally, I don’t push for the Japanese terminology as hard as some of my purist colleagues when it comes to training and implementation. The reason being that I came up in the Steel Industry and when dealing with unionized Steel employees, the Japanese terminology immediately caused push back and resistance. Its a cultural thing, and being a LEAN guy, I understood that it was not essential to the success of the initiative to force the terminology as much as conveying the message and teaching the techniques. We need buy-in and success, not Rosetta Stone, per se. At any rate, that’s my take on it. I can teach it or leave it, all depends on the culture and how we are approaching organizational change.
Kaizen Translated
Kaizen simply means “improvement”. Nothing more or less. Not contiuous improvement or process improvement. However, with no japanese word existing to describe continuous process improvement (CPI) relative to manufacturing or business processes; It has become the defacto term for such.
What is Kaizen as We Know It?
As process improvement practitioners, we use the term Kaizen to describe the act and philosphy of continuous improvement. Some people use the term to describe an event: We are doing a “Kaizen”, or use “Kaizen” to describe their CPI program in a Quality Management System (QMS). All of this is OK. Whatever works.
Kaizen as a Management Philosophy
We can consider Kaizen as our drive or direction to “improvement’ and/or “change for the better”. Kaizen is taken as a daily reminder that we should strive to improve ourselves and our workplace. Many of us spend as much time at work as we do at home, if not more. We owe it to ourselves to see perfection in our lives and situations. Being positive and genuinely striving for continual improvement is addictive and contagious. I wish I could find two better words to describe the effects, but its true. Kaizen breeds healthy competition and if used in a positive work environment with incentives, SMART goals, Balanced Score Cars and Strategy Mapping, you can build a world class organization with empowered, fulfilled employees.
Most common Kaizen I know of – The Kaizen Blitz
“We are doing a Kaizen!” Ever heard this? It is usually meant to describe a targeted, tactical, fast, high-impact improvement initiative in a single location or involving a single process or problem. The Kaizen Blitz is typically an all-hands attack on a given process problem over a 3-5 day period. Mine are typically in this range, but some are done in a day or less. I would suggest they be no longer than a working week, or you can lose focus and resources. It may become a Project at that point. The Kaizen Blitz is an extremely effective way to get a tactical, low-hanging-fruit project completed. I use them all the time for 5S or in APO’s case 6S events which deal with workplace organization, cleanliness, and safety. More on this in another update!
Kaizen Teams
If you have something you need to get done quickly form a Kaizen Team using 5-7 cross-functional members of your organization, but always include the stakeholders (those directly affected) of the target area or process. As you move to new areas and projects, retain some of your team and work through your organization until everyone has completed a Kaizen Blitz and has helped coach the newbies. It’s awesome to see the development of people in a collaborative, and positive setting… like a short-duration, low-risk improvement project. Remember its about changing culture, behavior and minds!
Well that’s it on Kaizen’s. If I missed something or you’d like to talk with me about using Kaizen at your organization, don’t hesitate to contact me.