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Kaizen Approach for the Systematic Review of Occupational Safety and Health
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-02053-8_110

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 Kaizen Approach for the Systematic Review
of Occupational Safety and Health Procedures
in Food Industries

Renan Zocca1(&), Tânia M. Lima1,2, Pedro D. Gaspar1,2,

and Fernando Charrua-Santos1,2
1
University of Beira Interior,
Calçada Fonte do Lameiro, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal
{m7068,tmlima,dinis,bigares}@ubi.pt
2
C-MAST - Centre for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies,
Covilhã, Portugal

Abstract. Kaizen is one of the continuous improvement management tools

encompassed by Lean Manufacturing. 5S methodology is a reorganization
technique for the companies generally associated with Kaizen technique. It was
specifically developed with the aim of transforming the environment of people’s
organizations and attitudes, resulting in improvement of employees’ quality of
life and the reduction of waste and costs, and aiming significant increases in
productivity. Portuguese food industry is composed mainly by Small and
Medium Enterprises that are now implementing new information and commu-
nication technologies and electronics. In order to promote their efficiency the
SME should update their computational tools to support scenario creation that
are used to ease the decision-making, so they are able to adapt rapidly to an
increasingly computerized industry named as Industry 4.0. It is presented a
computational tool to facilitate and implement a new culture of business man-
agement directed to agrifood SME, that aims to improve the organization and
Occupational Safety and Health.

Keywords: Computational tool
Decision-making
Agrifood industry

Occupational Safety and Health
5S philosophy
Kaizen
Industry 4.0

1 Introduction

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in most economies,
particularly in developing countries. Formal SMEs contribute up to 60% of total
employment and up to 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging economies.
Portugal, for example, has 99.9% of its industries formed by SMEs [1, 2].
The difficulty of these small enterprises to modernize and apply new tools is one of
the main obstacles to technological innovation. Small businesses, especially family
businesses, tend to continue to produce in the traditional way and are not adept at
change. Small business owners find it difficult to implement these tools, especially due
to the high initial investment required. This investment could go beyond the reality of

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

T. Ahram et al. (Eds.): IHSED 2018, AISC 876, pp. 722–727, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02053-8_110
 Kaizen Approach for the Systematic Review 723

these entrepreneurs. In addition, for example, in Portugal, few tools are configured by
default, and therefore have insufficiently satisfactory results for the national market [3].
The development of computational tools is increasingly recurrent, integrating the
work routine of large companies. Currently, it is unthinkable to compile data and create
scenarios that seek to improve the production system without the use of computational
tools that can support the decisions of the entrepreneurs of large production chains.
However, this is not the reality of most of small business owners.
It is necessary to give business managers more information to support decision
making by developing computer support tools that meet these characteristics.

2 Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing (LM) is one of the most well-known systems that could possibly
results in productivity improvement [4]. One of the major goals of LM is to implement
a philosophy of continuous improvement that allows companies to reduce costs,
improve processes and eliminate waste to increase customer satisfaction and profit. LM
provides companies with the tools to survive in a global market that demands higher
quality, faster delivery and lower prices, at the volumes required to sustain the busi-
ness. Specifically, its main objectives are to: drastically reduce waste in the supply
chain; reduce inventory and space occupied on the production floor; create stronger
production systems; Create appropriate systems for the delivery of materials; improve
the organization’s production areas to increase flexibility [5].
The LM implementation success mainly depends on top management commitment
[6] and engaging all the workers through training and by changing their habits by
means of improvement tools [7].

2.1 Kaizen
Kaizen is an umbrella concept, which focuses on the process improvement by elimi-
nating wastes in process; therefore, it provides base for LM that directed towards
achievement of continuous improvement [8]. It is referred as the key building block of
lean thinking [9] because is its base for long-term success [4].
The main objective of Kaizen is continuously improving a system, regardless of its
size or complexity. It contributes in identifying and eliminating waste in the manu-
facturing processes whenever there is an opportunity. There are other LM tools that
involved continuous improvement elements such as: Kanban, Just In Time (JIT), Total
Quality Management (TQM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and the 5S
workplace methodology among others [4, 10].
The goal is to contribute to higher productivity, by encouraging the direct col-
laboration of human resources in the production process, by pointing out new solutions
and techniques that improve the processes and reduce waste.
724 R. Zocca et al.

2.2 5S
The 5S methodology is a very appropriate way to initiate and achieve the process of
continuous improvement [7]. It is one of the best tools for generating a change in
attitude among workers and serves to engage improvement activities within the
workplace [7, 11]. This methodology, developed in Japan by [12], instills good habits
related to company organization and cleanliness. Specifically, establishes that Lean
Culture requires a change in people’s mentality as well as applying 5S as a prerequisite
for the implementation of other actions to achieve improvements and as a basic step
towards eliminating waste. The 5S name corresponds to the first letter of five Japanese
words: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Simplify), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardise) and Shit-
suke (Sustain).
Only with the unity and motivation of all the intervenient it is possible comply
consistently with all the rules. It is important to emphasize the involvement of top
management in all steps, demonstrating the ability to manage by example.
The 5’S tool is a resource applicable to any company, because is not conditioned by
a large initial investment. The 5s program begins by selecting everything that is not
useful to the company and the idle material within the company, passing it to material
that can be used, organizing in a standardized way and adapted to the needs and
characteristics of the organization.
Top management should strengthen the points that will enable people to interact in
the process, such as emphasizing individual aspects to strengthen the group; give
security to all (no one loses, everyone wins); show that nothing is unattainable and
everything can be improved (Kaizen); awaken the sense of usefulness in all (all are
important); among other values. “Consciousness alone is not enough. To change, man
needs the will” [9].
The implementation of 5’S brings immediate benefits such as: the release of
physical spaces, reduction of accidents, reduction of maintenance costs, reuse of
resources, visual improvement of the work environment, among others. The real
challenge is to maintain this strategy, always seeking to raise the level: “The organi-
zation generates efficiency” [13].
The 5’S brings improvement to the structure of the company, and for this, the
appropriate approach method is execution before theorizing. Thus, employees will note
the benefits of the approach and incorporate philosophy like a “belief.” In this way, the
results obtained will be extremely satisfactory, quantitatively and qualitatively [14].

3 5S Management Tool

The 5s management tool presented in this article was designed with the objective of
evaluating and implementing 5S philosophy, was developed to simplify the imple-
mentation process with the introduction of a thought of cleaning and organizing the
company’s files and tools, is intended to be used in the implementation of good
occupational health and safety (OHS) practices in the agrifood sector.
This sector encompasses many companies with very different specificities such as a
slaughterhouse and a horticultural, the 22 questions contained in the tool had as source
 Kaizen Approach for the Systematic Review 725

a manual of good practices in the agrifood industry commissioned by the Portuguese

Business Association (AEP) and developed by the consultant Eurisko [15]. These 22
questions summarize the main problems encountered in the sector’s SMEs. Since each
company has specific operating characteristics and legal obligations to comply, the tool
spreadsheet is open and not protected so that the manager can have the freedom to
create and adapt this tool to his company.
Before starting to use the tool is necessary to enable the macros, otherwise the tool
will not run. The tool presents two spreadsheets called “Tool” and “Chart”. The user
interaction will be just on the “Tool” spreadsheet, where he must answer all the
questions selecting “Yes”, No” or “NA (not applicable) with an “X”. To detect possible
errors in its fulfilment the tools will present some color alerts. When 2 cells in the same
row are filled, these cells will be colored with red, and the unanswered questions will
be colored with yellow.
It is recommended to print the “Tool” spreadsheet after its completion because the
tool is not able to store a database with the previous months.
The “Tool” spreadsheet has a cell called “Measurement,” which is autocomplete
and that indicates the measurement number. The tool was developed for 1 year and the
evaluations should be done monthly. Therefore, after the 12th measurement, the tool
will be unable for the introduction of new measurements. For introducing a new year,
the user it is required to press the “Delete” button to erase all the data of the previous
year. It can be observed in Fig. 1 that the tool provides a dialog box informing that the
spreadsheet should be deleted. It is advisable to save the document with a name
indicating the year, and then re-record the same document, with the cells cleaned, with
the name for the following year. To guarantee the tool good functioning, the cells must
be protected before its distribution to employees, because calculations are hidden but
not protected.

Fig. 1. 13º measurement.

The spreadsheet “Chart” presents the final punctuation for each month measure-
ment with a score from 0 to 20. This choice of punctuation serves to facilitate users’
726 R. Zocca et al.

interpretation. The “Chart” provides a graph with the monthly performance evolution
over one year of measurements.
The “Chart” worksheet has been developed with the intention of facilitating the
users’ data interpretation. For example, by the analysis of Fig. 2 graph, he can conclude
that there is an evolution of the results obtained since its first use. That during the initial
five months there was not a rapid evolution, this can be interpreted that workers had
difficulties on adapting to this new philosophy but subsequently to these months, he
had a rapid and consistent evolution. Since there is not a decrease in the score, it can be
concluded that there was an involvement of the company in the process of continuous
improvement. In April 2018, the company reached the maximum score and was able to
remain at this level for the next two months.

Fig. 2. Annual performance graphic

The intent of the tool is not only to implement the critical spirit of the Manager, but
to keep up with the maximum score. Scoring is a great way to encourage employees to
strive to continuously evolve scores and can be used even for performance evaluation.

4 Conclusions

The importance of SMEs in the world economy is undisputed, so the process of helping
SMEs in their livelihood and modernization is relevant to ensuring a better and
healthier future.
This tool was developed with the purpose of implementing widely accepted con-
cepts in the large industries, applying them in the reality of SMEs that are taking their
first steps towards modernization, systematic thinking and environmentally cleaner.
Giving the opportunity for each manager to reach his conclusion, finding ways to
improve his performance, as well as implementing a new systematic improvement
thinking for companies is the main objective of the development of this tool, supporting
and developing the local industry.
 Kaizen Approach for the Systematic Review 727

Acknowledgments. This study is part of the project activities “+Agro - Qualificação organi-
zacional, energética e de segurança e saúde no trabalho da indústria agroalimentar”. Ref. ID:
16159. The study was funded by Portugal 2020, Compete 2020 - Programa Operacional da
Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) - Sistema de Apoio a Ações Coletivas (SIAC):
04/SIAC/2015, Ref.: 16159).

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