KAIZEN Change for the Better to Kaizen and... · 3. Prevent problem reoccurrence with effective...

Joseph L. Coffman of 8 6/6/2020

KAIZEN – Change for the Better

Executive Summary

The goal of Kaizen should be that all employees improve something about their work every day as part of their normal job. This expectation should permeate organizational culture. Kaizen is not an event; event-based improvement can be useful as a kick start, but it is not the goal.

Joseph L. Coffman of 8 © Xcellus, Inc. 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 1

1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 3

2 OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES .......................................................................................... 4

3 KAIZEN DEFINITION ............................................................................................................... 4

4 STANDARDS & KAIZEN ......................................................................................................... 4

5 KAIZEN REVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 6

6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 8


1 INTRODUCTION

Can a company with 1500 employees complete 2522 Kaizens in one year? How about in the first year Kaizen is implemented? The short answer is YES!

Can this number be achieved with Kaizen events? Absolutely NOT!

Can a location with 3,000 employees implement 22,000 Kaizens in a single year? Again, the answer is, “Yes!” In 2012, the objective for the second factory location was 22,000. Employees crushed that objective in 2012, three years after the introduction of Kaizen to the company at the first location, shown above.

Which is better, a few dozen employees engaged in a small handful of Kaizen events, or all employees engaged daily in the Kaizen process, actively making small improvements in their daily work? Obviously this is rhetorical.

So, why do so many companies still do Kaizen events? There are many reasons. In my opinion, the best reason is to help kick start the improvement paradigm. Other reasons include: 1) It’s easier for leaders to support a handful of events than to support the daily follow up required to do Kaizen every day. 2) Events fit the consultant model. The consultant shows up for a week and bangs out a Kaizen event as facilitator. The benefit of the event, often quite good, is displayed to leadership. The consultant leaves, and the company gets little long-term benefit from the Kaizen process. 3) It is far easier for internal continuous improvement specialists to conduct a Kaizen event than to support and facilitate daily on the shop floor at the front lines day in and day out.


2 OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

The strategy deployment process is described in detail in another document (The Science of Operational Excellence). There should always exist a Kaizen objective that pushes that limits of improvement possibility. All eight strategies, below, are related to Kaizen:

1. Drive Strategic Deployment through all levels in the organization to ensure employee alignment with business objectives

2. Engage Management at the worksite through reaction protocols, daily team meetings and standardized work

3. Prevent problem reoccurrence with effective problem solving, yokoten and process focus

4. Engage each person in continuous improvement through training, kaizen and recognition

5. Perfect project launches through early engagement of value streams, Launch-Wheel process, and rigorous project management discipline

6. Use Xcellus Performance System to facilitate flow and eliminate waste throughout the enterprise

7. Develop and sustain processes to promote stop and fix culture (jidoka) 8. Implement constraint management principles

Some Kaizen-related tactics that support the above business strategies are described throughout the rest of this document. These tactics are directly linked to the business strategies and create the actions required to engage employees in the Kaizen process.

3 KAIZEN DEFINITION

Kai (改=Change) Zen (善=Good) – KAIZEN literally can be thought of as change for the better, or simply IMPROVEMENT. Consequently, any improvement is, technically, Kaizen.

At Xcellus, Kaizen is one of the core components of the Xcellus Performance System, like Standard Work and Problem Solving. Kaizen can be used as an impetus of culture change and is one of the best actual measures of Employee Engagement available. Surveys, while potentially useful as a measure, do absolutely nothing to promote employee engagement.

4 STANDARDS & KAIZEN

Standards are the key to improving. Without standards, improvement does not take place. Every company should embark on a large-scale effort to increase standardization of every business processes throughout its facilities. This should include all processes, project management, HR processes, accounting and finance, and the list goes on.


Within the manufacturing facilities, detailed standards should be developed for every job in the plant. Detailed Job Instruction (JI) sheets should be developed for every operation and process within those operations where the work happens. The JI Sheets are developed to easily fit the JI Training process, which has been utilized effectively since World War II.

A major strategy to implement is the Process Focus strategy. Process Focus is one of the primary strategies to help engage employees where the work takes place. This helps employees focus Kaizen ideas on the process.

When an employee has an idea to improve the process, they share the idea at shift meeting. The supervisor pulls a Kaizen card off the SQDEC board and hands it to the employee, who fills is out and returns it to the board for all-shift approval.

Example Kaizen Card

Safety

Returned. Reason Returned

Supervision Will Complete The Below Section

Shift Supervisor Signature

Area Manager Signature

Disposition

Just Go Do Work Order Engineering Review

Assigned To Date

Shift/ Crew Approvals

Defects/Rejects/Re-Work Other

List "Suggestion (s) for Improvement (A "Suggestion" is required for idea to be reviewed)

Env. Energy Cost Other

List "Improvement" or "Waste to be Eliminated"

Transportation Inventory Motion

Waiting Over-Processing Over-Production

KaizenName: Date:

Bldg Number: Shift:

TypeSafety Quality Delivery Employee


Example Kaizen Board

5 KAIZEN REVIEW

Not all Kaizens can simply be implemented. Sometimes the Kaizen idea must be submitted as a work order for Maintenance. Sometimes Engineering is needed. Sometimes the idea needs to be submitted and approved as a Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) project.

However, it is far too easy to generate ideas for other people to accomplish to improve an area. That is not the goal of Kaizen. How should the company guard against a slew of ideas that pass the improvement buck to some other department? Simple, set the Kaizen expectation (annual Objective) so high that passing the buck will NEVER allow an area to attain the objective.

This will help ensure the right mindset for Kaizen, that improvement is in the hands of every employee and they need to focus on improvement daily to meet the expectation.

This is the Kaizen process Xcellus follows:


6 KAIZEN RESULTS

The chart below shows the actual number of Kaizens implemented at one company. The Xcellus concept of Kaizen was introduced halfway through 2009. The objective in 2012 was 22,000. Employees crushed the objective by more than 6,000 Kaizens implemented. How’s that for employee engagement? Even more amazing is that this was only one tiny aspect of what was happening.


7 CONCLUSION

Most companies do Kaizen. In the 20+ years of experience in Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence in many companies, many companies do not achieve anywhere near the benefit they could from Kaizen.

If a company uses Kaizen a primary Employee Engagement and improvement tool, the benefits are far reaching, Employee Engagement, Culture Change, Improvement Mindset, Process Focus, and more.

As a final note, don’t use Kaizen as a cost-reduction tool. This will decrease Employee Engagement, because improvement-based cost savings will absolutely result in reduction in headcount. It will be very difficult to engage employees in the Kaizen process and mindset, not to mention all the other engagement activities, if they are actively reducing their own jobs. There are far better, more direct ways of attaining and measuring cost savings. Have a separate group, or even better a consultant, attack cost reductions as a separate initiative. The results will be far better and the long-term impact to employee engagement will be far less.

KAIZEN Change for the Better to Kaizen and... · 3. Prevent problem reoccurrence with effective...

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