CHAPTER 4

Kaizen: Concepts and Systems

Kaizen is a philosophy that calls for people
and their organizations to experience ongoing
improvement at every level.
Kaizen at workplace means continuing
improvement involving everyone, managers
and workers alike. The Kaizen business
strategy involves everyone in an organization
working together to make improvements
without large capital investments.
 Kaizen Concepts
Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning continuous
improvement. It is made up of two characters which are
“kai”, meaning “change”, and “zen”, meaning “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 large
improvements in due course.
Kaizen originated in Japan as a result of
World War II. Kaizen’s elimination of waste
through the maintenance and improvement
of processes became fundamental to
Japanese management philosophy. It has
since stretch around the world to companies
and organizations wishing to follow the
success of Japanese business.
Kaizen is used for placing the terms as
productivity, total quality control (TQC), zero
defects (ZD) , and just-in-time (JIT). Therefore,
Kaizen is the main concept for all these practices.
Improvements under Kaizen are small and
incremental (gradual), but it will bring the huge
results over time. Unlike western management
whom are inclined to focus on the worship of
innovations which is pretty much relying on the
changes in technological breakthroughs.
There are two types of kaizen which are “Gemba” (actual
workplace) kaizen and “ Teian” (plan) kaizen. Both intend
to develop higher production and quality standards.
Gemba kaizen is an action-oriented approach and refers
to improvement activities that are carried out in the
actual workplace. It involves all aspect of daily work that
can be improved. The heart of Gemba kaizen lies in small
changes that will transform the overall success of the
company not automatically right away but in the long
run.
Teian kaizen, on the other hand, represents a
theory-based approach and refers to strategic
improvements that are prejudiced by top
management. Here, the implementation of latest
processes and practices play the most dominant
role. The overall goals of teian kaizen are
improved business and manufacturing practices.
The most prominent teian kaizen methods
include total quality control and just-in-time
management.
 Kaizen Management
Management has two major components which are
maintenance, and improvement. The objective of the
maintenance function is to maintain 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 constantly towards modifying the existing
standards, once they have been mastered, and
establishing higher ones. Innovation involves a
drastic improvement in the existing process and
requires large investment and big efforts. Kaizen
signifies small improvements as a result of
coordinated continuous efforts by all employees.
Initiating and implementing TQM programs need
great quantity of planning and research. Managers
are required to acquire training in various TQM
practices prior to implementing the same. There are
costs involved with the whole process of TQM. It is
the manager’s responsibility to distribute budgets for
TQM at the beginning of every financial year.
A manager has to act as a bridge between the senior
management and the entire workforce.
1. The role of a manger is to act as a facilitator at the
work place. It is the duty of a manager to assist
employees in implementing TQM. As a manger, it is also
his responsibility to choose and assign right individuals
who can work as line managers and take charge of the
whole project. It is the manager’s responsibility to
allocate resources for TQM, schedule time for different
training programs and be grateful for employees who
come up with a variety of improvement ideas and
strategies which would aid the organization bring better
quality products.
2. A manager must communicate the benefits of total
quality management to the other members of the
organization. A manager is always strong source of
inspiration for other employees. He needs to practice
TQM himself before expecting other to believe in the
same principle. Customer feedbacks should be
cautiously screened and taken into consideration
while creating company’s major strategies. A manager
must also provide frequent reports to staff members
stressing scope of improvement.
 Process Vs. Results
Process-oriented thinking most centers on how
processes are carried out through the
assessment of performance indicators generated
by measuring or observing the process flow.
Result-oriented thinking basically disregards on
how processes flow and work. Instead, process
results/outcomes are obtained, monitored and
evaluated systematically.
Kaizen focuses at improving the process rather
than at achieving certain results. Such
managerial attitudes and process thinking
formulate a major difference in the manner an
organization masters change and achieves
improvements. This concept of process-
oriented thinking indicates that there must be
some problems in a process if the outcomes
are not encouraging to the firm.
Kaizen recognizes the connection between outcomes
and processes. If the result from an organization are
poor of quality, the processes used to achieve those
results necessitate concentration. This understanding
is a component of the framework of Japanese
society and explains why Kaizen is so successful
there. The manner in which processes are addressed
is a key element of Kaizen. Since the changes in
Kaizen are small, errors can effortlessly be corrected
with no involvement of much risk or expense.
 PDCA/SDCA Cycles
Central to the philosophy of Kaizen are two cycles that
involve processes for improvement and for maintenance.
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and Standardize-Do-Check-Act
(SDCA). When improving processes the following are the
phases.
1. Planning phase- planning 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. Employees are required to do necessary
research and collect relevant data which would help them
find solutions to all the problems.
2. Doing phase- employees develop a solution for the problems
defined in planning phase. Strategies are devised and implemented
to overcome the challenges. The effectiveness of solutions and
strategies are measured in this stage.
3. Checking phase- 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- the stage where employees document their
results and prepare themselves to address other problems.
Once a standard is put into place and put into practice, it can
become the focus of the PDCA cycle. The SDCA cycle, on the other
hand, ensures that have done using Kaizen works well and
improvements do not slide back.
 Putting Quality First
Kaizen also talks about improving performance in terms of
three dimensions which are quality, cost, and delivery
(QCD).
Quality is typically among the most essential criteria
customers use to make the purchase. Quality is usually the
customer-defined and referred to as the perceived
characteristics and features of a product. Kaizen requires
that quality is a primary goal. Kaizen recognizes that
without a quality product, organizations will not be able to
compete.
Cost is the overall cost of making and selling a
product. An important factor is the elimination of
waste in any aspects of work, such as production,
inventory, repair, rejects, motion, processing, etc.
Delivery refers to bringing the necessary quantity of
products in the right place at the right time. The
company may offer better prices using reduced cost
and attractive delivery items.
 Speak with Data
Since Kaizen deals with addressing problems or limitations,
every situation must be correctly understood. In order to
correct the problems in a process, detecting the problems
is the first thing to do. Sound data must be gathered and
evaluated for Kaizen to work for improvement. Without this
data, the company will be like a flying blind. It will never be
able to tell what is working and what needs to be
improved. Data is the lifeblood of Kaizen.
 The Next Process is Customer
This is the last concept of Kaizen. If all workers have to be cautious
what they are doing, the customers get the high-quality product
and service as a result. Kaizen also promotes the concept of
internal and external customers. If each internal customer is
delivered high quality goods, the external customer will have high
quality product to purchase. All individuals within an organization
deals with customers either internal or external ones. Through
this, Kaizen tries to set up a natural commitment to on-going
process improvement throughout the organization to ensure that
external customers will always receive high quality products.
 KAIZEN SYSTEMS
Kaizen encompasses many of the component of the
Japanese businesses that have been seen as a part
of their success. Total quality control/total quality
management, just-in-time delivery, total productive
maintenance, suggestion system, policy
development, suggestion systems and small-group
activities are all included within Kaizen system of
running a business.
 TQM Control
Total quality control (TQC) and total quality management (TQM)
are widely used in manufacturing , education, government and
service industry now. TQC/TQM have been developed as a
strategy to help management in becoming more competitive and
profitable through helping it improve in all phases of business.
TQC is a management tool for improving total performance. TQC
means organized Kaizen activities involving everyone in a
company. Managers and workers alike should be part of a totally
systematic and integrated effort toward improving performance
at every level.
 JIT Production System
JIT (Just-in-Time) is a revolutionary way to trim down cost
while at the same time meeting the customer's delivery
needs. JIT production has something to do with internal
process. For example, new stock will be ordered
automatically when stock reaches the re-order point level.
So, this system ensures that the firm can maintain the
minimum required number of stock every day, which saves
a lot of inventory cost. Also the firm can meet the
customer’s delivery needs.
 Total Productive Maintenance
TMP is a system of maintaining and improving the integrity of
production and quality systems through the machines, equipment,
processes, and employees that add business value to an
organization. TPM focuses on maintaining all equipment in top
working condition to avoid breakdowns and delays in manufacturing
processes.
The term productive maintenance is attributed to Nippondenso, a
company that created part for Toyota. However, Seiichi Nakajima is
regarded as the father of TPM because of his numerous
contributions to TPM.
One of the main objectives of TPM is to increase the productivity
of plant and equipment with a modest investment in
maintenance. TQM and TPM are considered as the key
operational activities to the quality management system. In order
for TPM to be effective, the full support of the total workforce is
required.
TPM is a modern Japanese concept. The origin of TPM can be
traced back to 1951 when preventive maintenance was initiated
in Japan. Nippondenso was the first company to begin plant wide
preventive maintenance in 1960." Preventive maintenance" is the
concept wherein, operators produced goods using machines and
the maintenance group was dedicated with work pf mainataning
those machines.
However with the automation of Nippondenso,
maintenance became a problem as more maintenance
of equipment would be carried out by the operators
which termed as "autonomous maintenance", one of
the features of TPM. Preventive maintenance along with
maintenance prevention and maintainability
improvement gave origin to "productive maintenance".
Its intention was to get the most out of plant and
equipment effectiveness to attain optimum life cycle
cost of production equipment.
 Types of Maintenance
1. Breakdown maintenance- it means that people wait until
equipment fails and repair it. Such a thing could be used
when the equipment failure does not significantly affect
the operation or production or generate any significant
loss other than repair cost.
2. Preventive maintenance- a daily maintenance design to
retain the healthy condition of equipment and prevent
failure through the prevention of deterioration, periodic
inspection or equipment condition diagnosis, to measure
deterioration.
a. Periodic maintenance (time based maintenance-TBM)-
Time-based maintenance consists of periodically inspecting,
servicing and cleaning equipment and replacing the parts to
prevent sudden failure and process problems.
b. Predictive maintenance- a method in which the service
life of important part is predicted based on inspection or
diagnosis, in order to use the parts to limit of their service
life. It manages trend values, by measuring and analyzing
data about deterioration and employs a surveillance system,
designed to monitor conditions through an on-line system.
3. Corrective maintenance- improves equipment
and its components so that preventive
maintenance can be carried out reliably or
improving maintainability.
4. Maintenance prevention- indicates the design
of new equipment. Weakness of current
machines are sufficiently studied and are
incorporated before commissioning a new
equipment.
 Policy Development
It states the level of defects or errors that is acceptable. The
policy needs to state the relationship between the company
and the customer. The policy should be direct and concise
and should clearly define management's commitment to
quality. Once the policy is written, management needs to
determine how to explain it to the employees. The best
method is for top executives to meet personally with group
of employees to explain the policy. This also ensures that
the commitment and interest of top management is
properly understood by all.
 Small Group Activities
Small Group Activity (SGA) is also known as focused or
continuous improvement in English. SGA finds its origin in
the Japanese industry where it is called Quality circles (QC).
Quality circles are designed to address not only quality
issues but also as cost, safety, and productivity. Quality
circles are regarded as group-oriented kaizen activities. SGA
is a method for problem solving in teams by structurally
searching for the root causes and eliminating them. After
standardization of the solution the reoccurrence of the
problem is prevented.
The members of the team learn to use techniques (cause
and effect diagram, fish bone diagram) to find and
eliminate root causes. The team is also taught
communication skills, working in teams and decision
making, in order to use each other's knowledge and
experience.
The structure of an SGA project is derived from the PDCA-
circle from Dr. W. Edward Deming and exists of 8 steps on
the basis of the SGA circle. The SGA team works
independently and reports the progress by means of
communication boards.
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!!!!!
 GROUP 4
Members:
BSED 2B (SOC-STUD)
Catherine Tingala-Leader
Vanessa Dawn Fuentes
BSED 2B (FILIPINO)
Reza Mae Gamuzaran
Ella Mae Gregorio