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KAIZEN The Japanese Strategy For Continu PDF
KAIZEN The Japanese Strategy For Continu PDF
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ABSTRACT
Kaizen is one of the most commonly used words in Japan. It is in the newspapers, on the radio and TV. Japanese
society is bombarded daily with statements regarding the Kaizen of almost anything. In business, the concept of
Kaizen is so deeply ingrained in the minds of both managers and workers that they often do not even realize that
they are thinking Kaizen. It is the key to Japanese competitive success. Because of Japan’s success, the Kaizen
philosophy has been implemented in organizations around the world as a way to improve production values
while also improving employee morale and safety.
The key difference between how change is understood in Japan and how it is viewed in the West lies in the
Kaizen concept. This concept is so natural and obvious to many Japanese managers that they often do not even
realize that they possess it! This explains why companies are constantly changing in Japan.
The Kaizen concept is very weak in Western companies, where it is often rejected without knowing what it
really entails. This explains why American and European factories may go years without changing. Within the
Kaizen way of thinking, not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in
the company. After WWII most Japanese companies had to start from the ground up. Every day brought new
challenges to managers and workers alike, and rising to those challenges resulted in progress. Simply staying in
business required unending progress and this made Kaizen a way of life.
1. INTRODUCTION
What is Kaizen? Kaizen (Ky ‘zen) is a Japanese term that means continuous improvement taken from words
'Kai', which means continuous and 'zen' which means improvement. Some translate 'Kai' to mean change and
____________________________
1
Assistant Professor, MBA Department, Apeejay Institute of Technology, School of Management, G.Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
INDIA. *Correspondence : i_khan23@ymail.com
Imran Ahmad Khan et. al / VSRD International Journal of Business & Management Research Vol. 1 (3), 2011
'zen' to mean good, or for the better. . The creator of the concept of kaizen, or continuous improvement, was the
late Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who made many visits to Japan in the years following
World War II. Dr. Deming’s work was so widely regarded as the driving force behind the resurgence of the
Japanese economy during this time that one of Japan’s most coveted awards was later named the Deming Prize.
Ironically, American businesses showed little interest in Dr. Deming’s work until the late 1970s when Japanese
exports began to make a marked impact on the economy. To paraphrase Matthew 13:58 in the New International
Bible, a prophet is indeed without honor in his own country. Kaizen involves in making small improvements on
a continuous basis.
Kaizen encompasses many of the components of Japanese businesses that have been seen as a part of their
success. Quality circles, automation, suggestion systems, just-in-time delivery, Kanban and 5S are all included
within the Kaizen system of running a business. Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually
improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing the training,
materials and supervision that is needed for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability
to meet those standards on an on-going basis.
The results achieved by Kaizen are: Setup time reduction 70–90%, Productivity improvement 20–60%, Process
time reduction 40–80%, Inventory reduction 30–70%, Walking distance reduction 40–90%. The results taken
from kaizen blitz projects conducted at the companies : Connecticut Spring and Stamping, Farmington, Conn.,
Critikon (a Johnson and Johnson Company), Southington., Hamilton Standard, Windsor Locks, Conn., Jacobs
Manufacturing, Bloomfield, Conn., Meriden Manufacturing, Meriden, Conn., Plastic Design, Inc., Middletown,
Conn., Pratt & Whitney, West Hartford, East Hartford, and Farmington, Conn., United Tool & Die, West
Hartford, Conn., Wiremold, West Hartford, Conn. Etc.
There are several types of kaizen activities, ranging from those that focus on developing solutions to problems
on the factory floor, to implementing a predetermined plan for change, to streamlining the flow of paperwork.
The most familiar and common type, the factory kaizen, provides a good example of the technique. In a typical
Kaizen Blitz project, a cross-functional multilevel team of 6 to 12 members work intensely, 12 to 14 hours a
day, to rapidly develop, test, and refine solutions to problems and leave a new process in place in just a few
days. They don’t plan, they don’t propose, they do. This focus on doing is what sets kaizen apart from other
improvement tools, but in order for it to work effectively; we need to recognize that it has other similarly unique
characteristics.
The kaizen process must begin with the process owner, the individual with real ownership and responsibility
who has the authority to change the process and be answerable for the consequences. He or she may be the
general manager, president, or in some cases plant manager, but always the person in charge. Kaizen cannot be
successful without strong support and direction from the top.
4. KAIZEN PRINCIPLES
The kaizen process is based on several rules that may vary in detail from company to company. But the
underlying concepts are the same: Be open minded, Maintain a positive attitude, Reject excuses, seek solutions,
Ask Why? Why? Why? There are no stupid questions, Take action. Implement ideas immediately, don’t seek
perfection, That is, do what can be done now, with the resources at hand, Use all of the team’s knowledge. The
experts are frequently found on the factory floor, Disregard rank. All team members are equal and everyone has
something to contribute, Just do it!!
Kaizen fundamentally differs from traditional continuous improvement processes because it is almost entirely
action-based. Teams are charged with both developing and implementing their solutions; they create processes
or change existing processes, leaving a new process in place. Kaizen is very much a hands-on process. Team
participants not only plan, they clean equipment, sort tools, move machinery (within the bounds of safety),
assemble, build, and run the process. They get tired, they get frustrated, and they get dirty together. Rank is not
recognized—factory managers and company officers work side by side with machine operators to find and
implement the best of their ideas. The team’s job is to make change happen. To create and leave in place a new
way of doing things.
there is no time to spend money on new capital equipment, complex and expensive tooling, or elaborate systems
solutions. Setup time reduction projects are good examples. When asked to reduce changeover time for a
machine by 90 percent, say, from one hour to six minutes, the engineering solution may be a new machine,
programmable controller, or sophisticated (read complex) new tooling. A Kaizen Blitz team has at most five
days to complete its work—that means to demonstrate new methods and to start to make them the new standard
way of doing the work. Even if unlimited funds were available, the money couldn’t be spent and the goods
received in the time allowed. The team must make do, for the most part, with what is already at hand and
concentrate on eliminating waste to achieve its goals. Most teams work with a very modest budget ($300 to
$400 is typical to support their projects), the kind of challenge that leads to the most creative solutions. The
kaizen technique itself teaches that eliminating waste and developing creative solutions using the equipment and
tools at hand are the preferred methods for achieving improvement goals.
7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research work is primarily based on secondary data published in various research journals, leading
newspapers, websites etc. It is descriptive in nature.
of dramatically changing too large a part of the business. The larger the area affected, the larger the potential
risks. Intended actions become “recommendations” as the fruits of change are watered down in endless studies.
Risk avoidance outweighs the opportunity for gain. In kaizen, a more narrowly defined focus is established
along with clear, measurable improvement goals. The team’s target might be a machine, a cell, perhaps a
department, but the scope is generally such that the risks of unforeseen consequences are minimized. An
authorization to “do what needs to be done” becomes feasible. Furthermore, because kaizen is a short-term
change process, typically spanning no more than several days (an AME Kaizen Blitz lasts three to four days),
whatever is changed can be changed back.
Management must be ready to make a real commitment to change—not only to acquiesce or agree to the need
for change but to lead the process. A kaizen team should be directed to “do what needs to be done.”If you’re not
ready to see a new process in place by next Monday, not just proposed, but in place and functioning as the new
way of doing business, then don’t start—kaizen just isn’t for you.
Kaizen reduces waste in areas such as inventory, waiting times, transportation, worker motion, employee skills,
over production, excess quality and in processes.
Kaizen improves space utilization, product quality, use of capital, communications, production capacity and
employee retention.
Kaizen provides immediate results. Instead of focusing on large capital intensive improvements, Kaizen
focuses on creative investments that continually solve large numbers of small problems. Large capital projects
and major changes will still be needed, and Kaizen will also improve the capital projects process, but the real
power of Kaizen is in the on-going process of continually making small improvements that improve processes
and reduce waste.
Kaizen is based on the belief that the people doing a particular job will often know better than everyone else,
including their superiors, how that job can be improved; and that they should be given the responsibility for
making those improvements. The production area is by no means the only area within a company where kaizen
can be implemented. Every department within a company can make continuous improvements in its operations
by making small changes on a daily basis. The first step in the process is to break down all communication
barriers between the various units within the company. The master budget is one such tool that can be used to
improve coordination and communication between all of the departments or other subunits within a company.
Due to western cultural differences between Japan and the West, it is advisable to have a team leader within
your Kaizen teams. This is to ensure the team behaves the way you want it to. Why? Well if you take a group of
closely working together individuals and tell them to stop working and look at their environment, they will need
someone to coax and guide them to bring about change, or else the team ethic will disintegrate.
The team leader will during all the Kaizen sessions be an equal member of the team, whilst at the same time; the
team leader will provide back-up support to the team. The team leader will be the individual who ensures
employees pursue the Kaizen ethics by having regular visits with the Kaizen team. Ideally the team leader
should come from within the employee teams, but it could be advisable to have a number of employees from
different departments of the company trained up in Kaizen logic and then placed in completely different
environments to lead teams. The responsibility of the success or failure should be placed on each Kaizen team,
please bear in mind Kaizen is a long term strategy, which means employees will on regular intervals not be
working in a value added manner, but the work they are doing is for improving productivity in the long run. The
need for employees spending a lot of time in the Kaizen teams needs to be explained to their immediate
superiors, the business has to accept that Kaizen is for its benefit.
about ways to improve, or make his job easier. In doing this, he finds ways to make his work more efficient,
thus adding to overall improvement within the company. The value of improvement is obvious. In business,
whenever improvements are made, they are eventually going to lead to better quality and productivity.
Improvement is a process, the process starts with recognizing a need, and the need becomes apparent when you
recognize a problem. Kaizen puts an emphasis on problem-awareness and will lead you to the identification of
problems.
13. STANDARDIZATION
If you don’t first set a standard, you can never improve upon that standard. There must be a precise standard of
measurement for every worker, every machine, every process and even every manager. To follow the Kaizen
strategy means to make constant efforts to improve upon a standard. For Kaizen, standards exist only to be
surpassed by better standards. Kaizen is really based on constant upgrading and revision. Not everything in a
process or work environment needs to be measurable and standardized. Sometimes, Japanese factories use one-
point standardization. Each worker performs many tasks, but only one of those tasks needs to be standardized.
This one-point standard is often displayed in the workplace so that the worker is always mindful of it. After the
standard is followed for a while, it becomes second nature to perform the task to meet the standard. At that
point, another standard can be added. Standardization is a way of spreading the benefits of improvement
throughout the organization. In a disciplined environment, everyone, including management is mindful of those
standards.
involved in solving problems. In many Japanese companies, the number of suggestions made by each worker is
looked at as a reflection of the supervisor’s Kaizen efforts. It is a goal of managers and supervisors to come up
with ways to help generate more suggestions by the workers. Management is willing to give recognition to
employees for making efforts to improve, and they try to make this recognition visible. Often, the number of
suggestions is posted individually on the wall of the workplace in order to encourage competition among
workers and among groups. A typical Japanese plant has a space reserved in the corner of each workshop for
publicizing activities going on in the workplace. Some of the space might be reserved for signs indicating the
number of suggestions made by workers or groups, or even post the actual suggestion. Another example would
be to display a tool that has been improved as a result of a worker’s suggestion. By displaying these sorts of
improvements, workers in other work areas can adopt the same improvement ideas
15. CONCLUSION
Improvement is the goal and responsibility of every worker, from the CEO to the manual workers, in every
activity, everyday, all the time. Through the small but continual efforts of everyone, significant reductions in
costs can be attained overtime. For a business to realize the true benefits of Kaizen it should form a long-term
strategy, which accepts that by involving employees in making their processes better, we all benefit. Getting
employees to believe that they are the real experts from which we can achieve ‘a change for the better’. Short-
term Kaizen does not work. It can be stated that new quality policies such as Six Sigma, are an extension of
Kaizen. If your business is serious about implementing Kaizen into the workplace, then it has to a long-term
strategy.
16. REFERENCES
[1] Atkinson, A.A., R.D. Banker, R.S. Kaplan, and S.M. Young. 2001. Management Accounting, 3rd Edition.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; Summary by James R. Martin.
[2] Cane, Sheila; Kaizen Strategies for Winning through People; 1996. Pitman Publishing, London, England,
United Kingdom.
[3] Deming, W. Edwards; 1986. Out of the Crisis; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
[4] Hilton, R.W., Ramesh, G. and Jayadev, M, 2009. Managerial Accounting, 7th Edition, Tata McGraw Hill
Education Pvt. Ltd.
[5] Horngren, Charles T., Datar, Srikant M., Foster, George; 2006. Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis,
12th Edition; Pearson Prentice Hall; Upper Saddle River, NJ.
[6] Tanaka, T., 1994; Kaizen budgeting: Toyota’s cost-control system under TQC. Journal of Cost
Management (Fall 2002); Summary by Rosalyn Mansour.
[7] www. Amazon.com
[8] www.businessknowledgesource.com
[9] www.docstock.com
[10] www.graphicproducts.com
[11] www.wikipedia.org