Using Kaizen Effectively In Lean Manufacturing

The Understanding of Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on reducing waste in manufacturing systems while increasing productivity. Waste is defined as anything that customers do not believe adds value to their lives and are unwilling to pay for. Lean manufacturing can provide advantages such as shorter lead times, lower operating costs, and higher product quality.

Furthermore, lean manufacturing is known as lean management and lean production that organizations from various fields can facilitate. Due to the desire to reduce wastes in producing lines and gain continuous improvement from many enterprises and organizations, there is a strategy which has been created by a Japanese company in the 20th century to resolve challenges in their manufacturing called Kaizen.

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen was founded in Japan after World War II, when the country was attempting to rebuild factories and rethink many systems. Kaizen became popular in the 1950s. According to Masaaki Imai, the father of Kaizen strategy, it is the most important concept of Japanese management and the key to Japanese business success. In the sense that it seeks harmony through continuous improvement, the Kaizen principle is based on ancient Japanese tradition and philosophy. It is now used to improve and streamline corporate processes as well as to gain personal development.

Additionally, Kaizen is a Japanese word that combines two meanings while Kai stands for “change” and zen stands for “good”. Likely, this strategy emphasizes the importance of consistent positive change. This entails documenting and managing procedures, as well as soliciting input and feedback from all company members. This lean manufacturing tool will produce powerful changes for the better over time.

Method And Implementation of Kaizen

The majority of businesses that use kaizen improvement techniques have set procedures and guidelines that are well-communicated throughout the business and reinforced through training. The fundamental processes for carrying out a kaizen event are listed below, while businesses usually modify and order these procedures to suit their own needs.

The Advantages For Organizations When Appealing The Kaizen Event

Process 1: Preparation & Planning 

The first challenge is to choose a suitable target area for a rapid improvement event. Areas with significant work-in-progress, an administrative process or production area where significant bottlenecks or delays occur. Also, areas with significant market or financial impact and quality or performance does not meet customer expectations are examples of such areas.

Once a suitable manufacturing process, administrative process, or factory area has been identified, a more specific waste elimination problem within that area is selected as the focus of the kaizen event. Managers typically assemble a cross-functional team of employees once the problem area has been identified.

Kaizen events are typically scheduled for one to seven days, depending on the scope of the targeted process and problem. During this time, a group  of workforces are expected to relinquish the majority of their operational responsibilities in order to focus on the kaizen event.

Process 2: Implementation

Typically, during a kaizen event, information on the targeted process is collected measurements of overall product quality, source of scrap, product routing, total product distance traveled, total square feet occupied by necessary equipment, number and frequency of changeovers, source of bottlenecks, amount of work-in-progress, and amount of staffing for specific tasks. 

For research and analysis, team members are assigned specific roles. As more information becomes available, they will add detail to process value stream maps and conduct time studies of relevant operations.

Process 3: Follow-up

The follow-up activity, which aims to ensure that improvements are sustained rather than just temporary, is an important part of a kaizen event. Following the kaizen event, team members routinely track key performance indicators to document the gains in performance.

Metrics commonly include lead and cycle times, process defect rates, movement required, and square footage utilized, though metrics differ when the targeted process is administrative.

Following the initial kaizen event, follow-up events are sometimes scheduled at 30 and 90 days to assess performance and identify follow-up modifications that may be required to sustain the improvements.

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One IBC^® helps organizations accomplish their objectives in the smoothest way with lean manufacturing and six sigma practices. We offer businesses that want to improve their procedure while keeping the integrity and principles of the organization.  

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