Have you ever wished if you could only gather the right people together, put them all in a room, and pick their brains to address a problem or to improve on one area or process? Well now you can. It’s called Kaizen. Kaizen comes from a Japanese term. Loosely translated, it’s change for the better or simply put, improvement. Sometimes it is called a lean event or a rapid improvement event. A few different names all describing the same thing. The term WorkOut was coined at GE. Essentially if you take unnecessary work out of the process to streamline and make it more efficient.
Kaizen is a well organized, structured, and facilitated event to improve a work area, a department, a process, or an entire value stream.
Kaizen is based on the belief that everything can be improved and nothing is status quo. It also rests on a Respect for People principle. Kaizen involves identifying issues and opportunities, creating solutions and rolling them out – and then cycling through the process again for other issues or problems that were inadequately addressed. These following steps create a cycle for continuous improvement and give a systematic method for executing this process.
Kaizen cycle for continuous improvement
These rapid improvement workshops can vary from one to five days, depending on the objective and scope of the kaizen, and follows the below process which can last weeks:
- Get employees involved. Seek the involvement of employees, including gathering their help in identifying issues and problems. Doing so creates buy-in for change. Often, this is organized as specific groups of individuals charged with gathering and relaying information from a wider group of employees.
- Find problems. Using widespread feedback from all employees, gather a list of problems and potential opportunities. Create a shortlist if there are many issues.
- Create a solution. Encourage employees to offer creative solutions, with all manner of ideas encouraged. Pick a winning solution or solutions from the ideas presented.
- Test the solution. Implement the winning solution chosen above, with everyone participating in the rollout. Create pilot programs or take other small steps to test out the solution.
- Analyse the results. At various intervals, check progress, with specific plans for who will be the point of contact and how best to keep ground-level workers engaged. Determine how successful the change has been.
- Standardise. If results are positive, adopt the solution throughout the organization.
- Repeat. These seven steps should be repeated on an ongoing basis, with new solutions tested where appropriate or new lists of problems tackled.
The tools used do not require any intensive or rigorous data analysis, but they do capitalize on the collective knowledge and hands-on experience of participants at the event. Examples of tools and techniques used include:
- Value stream mapping and process maps to provide a common understanding of what’s currently going on and not going on,
- Gemba Walk to observe at locations where work is performed,
- Process and value add analysis to identify non value add steps, rework delays and bottlenecks,
- Mapping the physical flow of parts or transactions in a facility,
- TIMWOODS, to identify the different types of waste.
- Pareto analysis using available data to focus the analysis,
- Brainstorming, cause-effect diagrams, and five Whys to quickly identify potential causes,
- Creativity techniques to develop solution alternatives, and Multi voting and prioritization matrices to select alternatives,
- Set up reduction and workload analysis to enable smaller batches and reduce cycle times,
- 5S to sort and organise items so that there’s a place for everything and everything’s in its place.
So when is a kaizen applicable? When quick analysis and improvements can be achieved using simple tools that do not require any rigorous data analysis, but can benefit greatly from the collective firsthand knowledge and experience of the right people.
The right people are usually operators, stakeholders, and customers of the process or value stream. During a kaizen event, participants work under the guidance of a facilitator who is trained in operational excellence. More specifically in lean tools. This is important so that the work is done right. The knowledge and skillset of the facilitator has a big impact on the success of the kaizen. At the end of the kaizen or lead event, the resulting output is a list.
The deliverables include approved recommendations and sometimes even implemented solutions. Done.
The key to a successful event is planning. Planning should be more than half of the total effort. It should start at least three to four weeks before the event. Sufficient time and effort should be allocated to gather existing data, obtain primary information from process stakeholders, identify the objective and scope of the event, and develop the agenda. Then you have to identify and invite the right participants for this event.
The lean tools used capitalize on participants’ knowledge and hands on experience, so it is critical that the right stakeholders are invited. Also, this will improve buy in and acceptance during implementation.
Kaizen 5S framework
A 5S framework is a critical part of the Kaizen system and establishes an ideal physical workplace. The 5Ses focus on creating visual order, organization, cleanliness and standardization to improve profitability, efficiency, service and safety. Below are the original Japanese 5Ses and their common English translations.
- Seiri/Sort (organize) — Separate necessary workplace items from unnecessary ones and remove unnecessary items.
- Seiton/Set in order (create orderliness) — Arrange items to allow for easy access in the way that makes the most sense for work.
- Seiso/Shine (cleanliness) — Keep the workspace clean and tidy.
- Seiketsu/Standardize (standardized cleaning) — Systematize workplace cleanup best practices.
- Shitsuke/Sustain (discipline) — Keep the effort going.
To summarise, if a issue does not require intensive data analysis and you want rapid improvements, Kaizen is definitely recommended.