THE KAIZEN THEORYGroup 5- Linda, Elijah, Jelah, Nancy, & La’Gerald
KAIZEN Kai = Change Zen = Good
Kaizen means “good change”
KAIZEN Kaizen is making small incremental
changes to improve productivity and reduce wastes
The goal is to eliminate the Non-Value Added Activities (i.e. walking, transporting parts, generating useless reports)
MAIN PRINCIPLES OF KAIZEN Identify obstacles and threats at an early stage
and are solved then. Small issues that are overlooked can snowball into bigger problems.
Reduce waste through effective management. There are always more effective ways to do things Encourage employees to bring in ideas and suggestions
Must be done in a way where no one is blamed and that the best process is put in place.
HISTORY Toyota came up with the “Toyota Production
System” which strived for continuous improvement
In 1986, Masaaki Imai, the developer of Kaizen, wrote a book called “Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success”
Westerns read the book and “discovered” Kazien
BENEFITS OF KAIZEN Reduces waste
Improve space utilization and product quality
Higher employee moral and job satisfaction
Teaches to solve everyday problem
KAIZEN VS PROBLEM SOLVING TEAM
THE 5S’S Sorting
Keeping only essential tools and items
Simplifying Eliminate extra motion
Sweeping Cleaning work area
Standardizing Standardized work practices
Sustaining Maintaining standards
DOWNFALLS OF KAIZEN Resistance to change
Lack of proper procedures to implement new process
Too many suggestions can be confusing and a waste of time
Difficult to implement in large scale process, because it requires a lot of analyzing
REFERENCES Imai, Masaaki (1986). Kaizen: The Key to Japan's
Competitive Success Liker, Jeffrey; Meier, David (2006). The
Toyota Way Fieldbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Laraia, Anthony C.; Patricia E. Moody; Robert W. Hall (1999). The Kaizen Blitz: accelerating breakthroughs in productivity and performance. John Wiley and Sons. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-471-24648-0. Retrieved 6 February 2010.