Kaizen workshops are structured team activities aimed at swiftly applying lean methods to eliminate production waste in specific shopfloor areas. Preparation includes selecting an area, defining a problem, and establishing baseline measurements. Teams are trained, and a timeframe is set, typically lasting one week but can vary. Shorter events may focus on narrower goals, such as implementing 5S or visual controls. Success depends on thorough planning and communication, especially for more challenging or widespread improvement initiatives. 

Cautions for Kaizen Workshops:

• Plan Advance Production: Ensure adequate production coverage during the workshop to compensate for potential output declines.
• Focus on Worker Participation: Involve employees in solution creation rather than imposing ideas.
• Employee Training: Provide training to ensure understanding and application of lean principles among all involved.
• Prevent Disruptions: Plan for potential production slowdowns and line shutdowns during significant process or layout changes.
• Empower Employees: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by empowering workers and valuing their insights.

Communicating to the Whole Company about the Kaizen Workshop:

• Top-Level Announcement: A statement from company leadership signals strong support for the workshop, fostering employee buy-in.
• Schedule and Procedure Clarification: Posting the workshop schedule and outlining steps reduces uncertainty and fear of the unknown.
• Daily Progress Updates: Regular communication on workshop progress keeps all employees informed and engaged, even those not directly involved.
• Union Involvement: Enlisting union assistance ensures a collaborative effort and widespread understanding of workshop details.
• Detailed Descriptions: Circulating workshop descriptions and plans, including affected areas and expected benefits, builds awareness and excitement.
• Visual Aids: Before-and-after photos, videos, and newsletters showcase workshop outcomes, reinforcing the value of participation.
• Inclusion of Maintenance Team: Recognizing the maintenance team’s contributions and involving them in communications fosters collaboration and gratitude.
• Follow-Up Communication: Publishing workshop presentations and ongoing results, both electronically and physically, maintains transparency and accountability.
• Continuous Updates: Regularly updating communication channels with new information ensures ongoing engagement and reinforces a culture of continuous improvement.
• Utilization of Bulletin Boards: Making bulletin boards a central hub for workshop updates encourages employees to stay informed and engaged with the kaizen process.

Key Roles for a Successful Kaizen Workshop:

1. Team Leader: Leads the kaizen workshop, coordinates activities, and ensures objectives are met.
2. Team Members: Participate actively in workshop activities, contribute ideas, and implement improvements.
3. Management Support: Provides resources, removes obstacles, and reinforces commitment to lean principles.
4. Subject Matter Experts: Offer technical knowledge and guidance on specific improvement areas.
5. Facilitator: Helps guide the workshop process, facilitates discussions, and ensures smooth progress.
6. Data Analyst: Collects and analyzes data to identify opportunities for improvement and measure outcomes.
7. Support Staff: Provides logistical support, arranges materials and equipment, and assists with documentation.
8. Stakeholders: Represent the interests of affected parties and provide input on proposed changes.
9. Trainers: Provide necessary training on lean principles and methodologies to ensure understanding and implementation.
10. Follow-Up Team: Monitors progress, addresses issues, and sustains improvements after the workshop.

Each role is essential for the success of the kaizen workshop, ensuring that efforts are coordinated, supported, and followed through to achieve measurable and lasting results aligned with lean manufacturing principles.

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Kaizen means continual (step by step) improvement. there are two most common methods to identify Kaizen projects in an organisation. Kaizen projects can be identified by doing Value stream mapping and by Conducting Kaizen assessment.

Key objectives of conducting a Kaizen assessment are:

• Identify gaps and opportunities for improvement
• Identify priorities and set Targets for improvement
• Create a Kaizen implementation roadmap

Kaizen assessment methodology is based on genchi genbutsu approach, emphasizing the significance of firsthand observation.  ‘Genchi genbutsu’ translates to ‘going to the actual work place and seeing for yourself.’ Kaizen assessment involves a focused examination of Gemba processes, recognizing that true value is created at that level.

Key Elements of Kaizen Assessment are:

Resources Capacity Utilization Assessment: Utilisation of all key resources such as Material, Ma chinery, Manpower & Space is assessed by identification of material losses, equipment downtimes, OEE losses, manpower productivity losses and space utilisation. Capacity utilisation can be assessed by shop floor observations, collecting live data, analysis on historic data and gathering facts on shop floor through meetings and discussions with shop floor team members and management.

Operational Performance Assessment: this covers assessing the operational performance parameters such as Lead time, Customer complaints, Major costs etc. An in-depth analysis of your material and information flow to ascertain lead time, waste (muda), material stagnation, bottlenecks, etc. is conducted. This involves measuring various processes to gather accurate data, including lead times, cycle times, takt times, setup times, process fluctuation, etc.

Leadership & Management: The foundation of a successful lean implementation lies in management commitment. Assessment of management practices, such as daily meetings, management boards, and daily work involvement is required to understand the management commitment. This is done by conducting interviews with key personnel in the orrganization, including top and middle management, support functions, and operators, this provides valuable insights into your current leadership and management dynamics

After conducting the assessment on all Key elements, improvement priorities are identified based on major gaps. 80/20 rule is used to set the priorities for improvement and for creating a Kaizen implementation roadmap.

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Daily Work Management is a process to gain control over plan vs actual and to bring stability and predictability in day to day processes. Daily work management allows to know on a daily basis if we are on track to achieve goals or not. There are 3 key elements of Daily Work Management

• Daily Standard work (Leader standard work and Gemba Walks)
• Visual Controls
• Daily Accountability Meetings

Daily Standard Work (Leader standard work and Gemba Walks): is a standardized set of tasks to be executed within specified time frames (daily, weekly, monthly). Daily Standard work establishes routines or benchmarks that enable the detection of irregular conditions.  Daily Standard work is a set of behaviors and tasks that leaders at each level should use every day to enhance continuous improvement or kaizen culture.

Gemba Walks are integral part of Daily Standard work and help to gain an in-depth understanding of operational processes by going to Gemba (a place where actual work is done). Purpose of Gemba walk is to observe and ensure standard work is followed everywhere and abnormalities are identified and corrected immediately.

Visual Controls: Daily Standard work also includes implementation of of Visual Controls. Visual controls help in a swift comparison of anticipated versus actual performance during the gemba walks.

Daily Accountability Meetings: Each day, it is essential to ensure that routine & improvement tasks are being carried out as planned and seek assistance when needed. Leader’s accountability in daily operations involves examining data, establishing the subsequent actions, prioritizing tasks, allocating resources, identifying responsible parties, and setting due dates. Content and agenda of Daily Accountability meetings are recorded on a visual board. At each meetings, team at each level of hierarchy gathers around the board, discuss the progress against Goals or Key performance indicators and present status of improvement actions

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Can continuous improvement or Kaizen actually reduce costs in Poultry Farms?

Let’s find out!

But first, we need to understand the meaning and working of the Kaizen Process to delve deep into the topic. So, here is a brief explanation of what it includes and how it can help reduce poultry costs.

What is Kaizen?

‘Kaizen means continuous improvement.’

It’s a process where everyone works together to bring small but significant changes that can help procure faster gains. It is core to lean manufacturing and was mainly developed to lower defects, reduce waste, boost productivity and innovation, and encourage workers’ involvement. The process can be applied in all businesses and at individual levels. 

Steps in Kaizen Process

The Kaizen process works on the PDCA cycle, i.e., PLAN, DO, CHECK and ACT. The process leads to improved and better solutions when the four pillars are systematically applied and implemented. We call it a Deming Circle/Wheel that will help you make an iterative design and begin the improvement process.  

The process benefits all industries, including the chicken processing industry. Let’s look at how it helps reduce costs and build profits in the industry through the case study.

Kaizen in reducing costs in Poultry Farms

Kaizen is generally known as asales booster and failure remover. Hence, it becomes essential for poultry processors to adopt and implement Kaizen techniques and tools to improve the efficiency of their operations. 

However, when we all know that Kaizen translates to ‘improvement,’ it becomes confusing to understand how improvement can reduce costs.

After all, improvement is all about an increase in quality, quantity, and costs!

But, we need to know that though improvement techniques need initial investments, they help to cut costs with time. Similarly, Kaizen tips and techniques, when applied in Poultry farms, can help reduce costs by causing an increase in savings and profits. The case study will give you a deeper understanding of how it helps reduce costs and leads to continuous improvement in the poultry industry.

Poultry industry – Before Kaizen

The growing industry is in its initial phase, and its process flow includes Brooding, growing, housing, mating and collection. However, these techniques come up with some significant challenges that have –

• High Mortality Rates due to the presence of a large number of the flock and fluctuating high and low breeding temperatures.
• High stocking density brings many adverse effects, including decreasing body weight and average weight gain, impacting the broiler’s feed intake, etc.
• High feed costs lead to insufficient feed and, consequently, a decline in good chick health.
• Improper storage capacity utilization impacts uniformity among the flock.
• Variations in feed intake cause a lack of differentiation among the birds raised for egg or meat production.

With these problems beginning to flourish in the Poultry industry, there is a need to implement Kaizen tricks and improve operational efficiency in all the processes. 

Poultry Industry – After Kaizen

Opting for Kaizen techniques and practices in the poultry industry leads to new and sustainable changes. The critical projects identified include eliminating feed waste, increasing stock density, and improving manpower productivity. Hence, the process is now molded into a new and much more organized plan called the Kaizen Process. Its working includes –

• Collecting and analyzing the related data
• Brainstorming and fishbone analysis of the collected data to identify the possible causes
• Preparing and designing an action plan for countermeasures
• Implementing the countermeasures
• Checking results and calculating the overall benefits 
• Setting new standards and doing horizontal improvements and deployments.

Maintaining a balanced feed consumption ratio, preventing wastage, and improving overall productivity are essential to any firm. However, it sometimes becomes challenging to balance the numbers for unexpected reasons. Hence, when applied here, Kaizen techniques cause automated feed distribution and savings and can successfully maintain the Feed Consumption Ratio. It also helps reduce labor costs and guarantee returns within a short span.

When the farm adopted the techniques, there were changes in the actual figures. With the use of a bag and scoop, the feed spillage initially 9.54% fell to 9.34%. However, the result was unsatisfactory, so the farm opted for a new scoop design that further declined feed spillage from 1.28% to 0.15%. 

Similarly, there was a slump in the female feeder wastage with a shift to a giant mesh. Adopting new and upgraded chain feeder methods improved the stock density from 4.5 to 4.8 and resulted in excellent results.

Conclusion

Continuous improvement requires time, money, and effort but renders long-lasting results. Similarly, using Kaizen in Poultry farms also requires initial investments but helps save many of your funds over a more extended period. 

So, why wait now?

Shift to these new and modernized processing techniques and get ready to cut a lot of the non-required costs. Continuous improvements and consistency will surely lead your path to success!

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“In Japanese, Kaizen means“continuous improvement”. “The word implies improvement that involves everyone—both managers and workers”.

Kaizen is for any organisation (manufacturing, process or service) whowishes to improve productivity, reduce costs and improve profitability and establish continuous improvement culture. Kaizen helps to curb waste (MUDA), make operations efficient, relevant and error-free, keep customers satisfied, and eventually improve returns.

Key Objectiveof Kaizen is to reduce time line from receipt of confirmed order to the time when the cash in collected by elimination of Non-Value adding (NVA) activities. Any activity that absorbs resources but does not add value to customer or any activity for which customer is not willing to pay for is called NVA or `Muda’.

NVA activities result in wastage / underutilisation of resources thus extra costs. Following are 8 types of wastes:

• Over processing – processing beyond customer requirement

• Waiting- Operatorssitting idle during machine processing or assembly work

• Transportation – unnecessary movement of parts

• Inventory – excess raw material, finished goods or semi-finished goods lying in inventory

• Motion–excess movement of people

• Excess production- producing more or faster than customer requirements

• Defects, Rework- rejected goods and high scrap

• Non-utilised talent of people–hidden potential capacity or right people doing wrong function

Waste elimination through Kaizen results in following Key benefits:

Kaizen aims at improving overall performance of organisation and reducing the cost of operations. Implementing Kaizen with experts can help organisation:

1Improve quality

Improving the quality of the work processes results in fewer mistakes, fewer rejects and less rework, shorter lead time, and reduced use of resources.

2Improve manpower productivity

Kaizen helps organisation to eliminate key issues that impact productivity – reduce waiting time between work processes, material movement between processes, non-value adding activities by employees, manual workflows and imbalanced cycle times. When productivity goes up, cost goes down.

3Reduce inventory

Inventory occupies space, prolongs production lead time, creates transport and storage needs, and eats up financial assets. Kaizen Inventory models helps understand the actual reasons behind inventory gaps & set right levels of production & stock.

4Shorten the production line:

A longer production line requires more people, more work-in-process, and a longer lead time leading to much higher cost of operations. Kaizen drives managers to constantly find better ways to do the job than the last time. Implementing Kaizen tools results in better production layout with shorter assembly lines and fewer people to employ.

5Reduce machine downtime:

Kaizen helps minimise machine breakdowns, speed losses & quality losses by using Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), improving Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

6Reduce space:

Kaizen ensures effective Space utilisation & savings through flow management tools like Layout design, cellular manufacturing & Inventory management.

7Reduce lead time:

Focus of Lean Kaizen is to continuously reduce Business Throughput time by identifying, reducing and eliminating MUDA (Waste). Eliminating waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects.

Kaizen Implementation through PDCA Approach

To implement Kaizen successfully and in systematic manner PDCA methodology is used.: Plan-do-check-act (PDCA) is a cycle which has four stages

• Plan:Planning stage covers Identification of key areas for improvement, Setting Targets for improvement, Collect and analyse data thoroughly to understand the problem and identify countermeasures to address the root cause

• Do:Implement the countermeasures

• Check:Evaluate the results, if targets are not achieved, go back to planning stage to further analyse the problem

• Act:Standardize and stabilize the change or begin the cycle again, depending on the results.

One of the most successful ways to implement Kaizen in speedy and systematic manner is throughfive-day ‘Learn by Doing’ kaizen workshops.Kaizen workshops are also known as Kaizen Blitz, Lean event or Gemba Kaizen workshops. PDCA approach is followed in conducting the Kaizen workshop. After Kaizen projects have been identified, a cross functional team is formed for the project. During the Kaizen workshop, Project team (including staff experts and consultants as well as operators and managers) analyse, implement, test and standardise processes. Kaizen, better known as “the continuous improvement process”, can work wonders when implemented with the help of Kaizen consultants who are experts in process and its application across industries.

During this workshop, variousLean Kaizen tools are implemented to successfully achieve the project objectives. Depending on type of MUDA and losses, different Lean Kaizen tools are used.

5S,a powerful method to improve and sustain workplace organisation.5S help reduces clutter, reduces the time it takes to look for tools and equipment. Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain are key 5 pillars to be implemented. These five pillars results in higher product quality, lower costs, increased customer satisfaction, and corporate growth.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)is most successful technique to enhance the reliability, efficiency and productivity of men and machines across an organization. It maximises equipment efficiency, through a system of preventive maintenance, mistake-proofing equipment, to eliminate product defects and to make maintenance easier. TPM not only increases production by improving effectiveness of machines but also helps in increasing employee morale and job satisfaction. The ultimate goal of TPM is zero equipment breakdown and zero product defects, which in turn results in improved utilization of production assets and plant capacity.

Total Flow Management (TFM)is key tool to reduce all types of wastes and is based on principles of Toyota production system and focused on improving of flow of material & information within any organisation. Most of Non-Value adding activities are generated when flow of material or information stops. To improve the material & information flow following are some of the key tools which are used in TFM

• Value stream mapping to see waste in material and information flow

• Line balancing: to ensure smooth work flow between processes and individuals

• Cellular manufacturing: to improve layout and productivity and throughput

• Standard work to ensure best quality and error free work

• SMED to reduce changeover times to have smaller batches, thus improve material flow

• Pull System to minimise over production and over flow of inventories

• Internal logistics flow improvement through Mizusumashi (Water spider) system

• External Logistics flow improvement to minimise turnaround time & improve On time In Full Delivery

Total Quality Management (TQM)helps minimise Muda of Defects, Rejection, Rework and aims for Zero Rejection. TQM involves the understanding and implementation of quality management principles and concepts in every aspect of business activities. Total Quality Management demands that the principles of quality management must be applied at every level, every stage and in every department of the organization. The idea of Total Quality Management philosophy must also be enriched by the application of sophisticated quality management techniques.

TQM is a vision which the firm can only achieve through long-term planning, by drawing up and implementing annual quality plans which gradually lead the firm towards the fulfilment of the vision, i.e. to the point where the following definition of TQM becomes a reality:

A corporate culture characterized by increased customer satisfaction through continuous improvements, in which all employees in the firm actively participate. Quality is a part of this definition in that TQM can be said to be the culmination of a hierarchy of quality definitions:

1Quality

is to continuously satisfy customers’ expectations.

2Total quality

is to achieve quality at low cost.

2Total Quality Management

is to achieve total quality through everybody’s participation.

Several tools under TQM such as 7 QC tools and Statistical process control help curb the defects & rejection.

The key is to engage all employees towards continuous improvement, thereby building Kaizen culture in the organisation. Top Management should plan Gemba Kaizen workshops and training sessions for employees to transform into a Kaizen culture organisation. Companies who implement Kaizen are more open, transparent and innovative.

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 A Lean or Kaizen Event, also referred to as a Kaizen Workshop, Kaizen Blitz, Breakthrough Kaizen, or Rapid Improvement Event, is a powerful tool for accelerating improvement. It’s a structured team activity designed to remove waste and implement improvements in a defined work area or process, all within a few days.  Kaizen Events are tactical, focusing on how to execute the strategy, utilizing the people closest to the work.

Kaizen Events solve problems quickly and succeed in consistently delivering sustainable results. The approach relies on cross-functional teamwork, implementing improvements in real time, and learning by doing. A familiar Chinese proverb sums up the kaizen philosophy: Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand. The Kaizen Event is characterized by a number of attributes that, when followed, enable teams to consistently outperform established expectations, and make this improvement approach fundamentally different from traditional models. Following are 6 key characteristics of running successful Kaizen events or Kaizen Workshops.

1. Value stream driven:Linking your Kaizen Events to a future state value stream map and implementation plan enables a holistic view of customer value and minimizes the risk of sub-optimization
2.  Total Employee Involvement:  the primary members on Kaizen Teams are the people who are working the process daily. In most settings, the people doing the work know what needs to change, but traditional improvement processes have not provided them with the proper platform to participate in actualizing their ideas. Encouraging teams to seek the wisdom of ten rather than the knowledge of one promotes inclusive decision making and, as a result, more innovative and sustainable solutions. An important aspect of the kaizen philosophy is to use measurable objectives and a learn-do model to develop teamwork and build an improvement skillset in your front-line workers, which further increases organizational flexibility and responsiveness to changing demands.
3. Cross Functional Teamwork: Kaizen Events leverage the power of involving upstream suppliers, downstream customers, and subject matter experts, as well as objective “outside eyes” in problem solving.  Leveraging the perspectives and experience of a cross-functional team has many benefits. First, it dissolves interpersonal and interdepartmental tension that may exist prior to a Kaizen Event, in large part because individuals and departments don’t understand one another’s needs and don’t regularly solve problems together. Working on a defined problem provides everyone with a full understanding of how the process works and what the true needs are. From here, the team generates the best solutions, strengthening working relationships in the process

4. Short duration: Kaizen Events usually last for two to five days. While this may seem like a long time to sequester people from their normal duties, it’s actually a short time period when compared with the length of time the defined process problems have typically existed and will likely continue to exist without the Kaizen Event. Also, the amount of work that’s accomplished and the learning that occurs in only two to five days far exceeds that which is experienced in most traditional improvement activities and training programs

5. Waste elimination: Kaizen Events place greater emphasis on eliminating non-value adding activities than improving speed in performing value-adding (VA) activities. You want to eliminate the eight wastes embedded in the work sequence that are causing the greatest pain and that will produce the most immediate results. This does not mean that implementing improvements to accelerate VA activities is off limits—it just means that optimizing value-added work is not the primary focus for Kaizen Events

6. Built-in sustainability: Change is difficult, and to achieve sustainability, we must confront our human tendency of returning to the way we’ve always done things. Kaizen Events address this issue in several ways: 1) thorough current state analysis and clear improvement objectives; 2) total employee involvement; 3) real-time leadership and peer buy-in regarding changes; and 4) the development and execution of a solid Sustainability Plan

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An engineer in a car manufacturing company designs a world class car. The owner is impressed with the outcome and praised him a lot. While trying to bring out the car from the manufacturing area to the showroom, they realised that the car is few inches taller than the entrance. The engineer felt bad that he didn’t notice this one before creating the car. The owner was amazed on how to take it outside of the manufacturing area. The painter said that they can bring out the car and there will be a few scratches on top of the car which could be touched up later on. The engineer said that they can break the entrance, take the car out, and later re-do it. The owner was not convinced with any ideas and felt like it is a bad sign to break or scratch

A Watchman was observing all the drama & slowly approached the owner. He wanted to give an idea if they had no problem. They wondered what this guy would tell them that the experts could not give. The watchman said “The car is only a few inches taller than the entrance so, Simply release the air in the tyre, the height of the car will sink and can be easily taken out”…

Everyone clapped!!!

Don’t analyse the problems only from an expert point of view alone.

There is always a layman’s outlook that gives an alternate solution at a given point of time…

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Having right mindset is ket to get results from Lean Kaizen Implementation. Leaders need to have right mindset to have maximum benefits from Kaizen / Lean Implementation program.

Lean thinking starts with the customer and works back from there, defining any activity that doesn’t add value for the customer as waste.The goal of the lean organisation is to strive constantly to deliver value to the customer in the shortest possible time through the relentless elimination of waste, variability and inflexibility. Certain ideas are common to all lean companies, and contribute to what we might call the lean mindset.

1. DON’TTHINKBIG; THINKSMALL ANDFLEXIBLE: One of the goals of a lean transformation is to drive down lead times to allow a company to respond quickly to its customers’ changing demands. This involves designing both core processes and the organisational structure to create flow. For executives schooled in the guiding principle of scale economies – namely, using expensive equipment to process large batches in order to drive down unit cost – such an approach may seem perverse. A lean mindset views common problems in a very different light. Think about boarding a flight. Where there is no direct gangway access, big buses are used to transport passengers in batches from the terminal building to the plane. You have to wait in the lounge for the bus to arrive, wait on the bus for the last passenger to get on and then queue on the tarmac to board the plane. The operating system is characterised by stagnation rather than flow. Now let’s consider how we might apply a lean mindset to tackle passengers’ frustration. If more journeys were made with smaller buses, waiting time would be reduced. This would incur higher capital investment and a heavier salary burden, but substantially increase value to passengers through better service.

2. THEFRONTLINE IS WHERE THEVALUEGETSADDED: When you go to a supermarket, you want to find good products quickly and pay for them without queuing for too long. If you can’t find something, you need a friendly member of staff to show you where it is. As a customer, you don’t care how many deliveries were made last night, or what training schemes the till operators have been on, or what key performance indicators the retailer tracks. For sure, the supermarket may need all these things to deliver value to you, but they don’t form part of  your shopping experience, or your perception of value. Obvious, perhaps – but managers often have difficulty accepting the implications. They may have to adjust their own roles and the way they allocate their time between different tasks in order to ensure that front-line operations run smoothly and value is added at the customer interface.

3. EVERYONE IN THEORGANISATIONNEEDS TOUNDERSTANDHOWHIS OR HERACTIONSCONTRIBUTE TOBUSINESSGOALS:  Consider a company that has always operated with a high level of overtime. Because of falling demand, the business no longer needs this expensive additional capacity. Employees who have become used to the extra income will need to understand the business reasons for withdrawing it before they can accept the change. The withdrawal of overtime will need to be offset by some other perceived benefit such as job security. Managers must be transparent, not only to demonstrate the need for change but also to earn trust and help align the interests of individual employees with those of the company. Such alignment forms the necessary basis for employees to develop a lean mindset and take on the extra responsibilities that a lean system demands.

4. THEROOTCAUSES OFPROBLEMSNEED TO BEADDRESSED, NOTJUST THE SYMPTOMS: In unstable operating systems, as we have seen, people spend most of their time reacting to problems. Over time, they become adept firefighters, their behaviour is rewarded, and firefighting becomes part of the culture. In a lean environment, by contrast, problems are not tolerated. Instability is anathema to a lean mindset. Any source of loss is pursued back to its root causes and designed out to prevent recurrence. At Toyota, any problem is brought to light as quickly as possible so that it can be resolved there and then. Employees are obliged to stop an entire car production line if they detect a fault. The root causes must be resolved before production resumes.

5. A PROBLEM IS ANOPPORTUNITY TOIMPROVE, NOT TOBLAME: A regime based on punishment quickly becomes oppressive and invites rebellion and subversion. Children who are humiliated if they admit to mistakes soon learn it’s safer to keep quiet and pretend nothing has happened. It’s much the same in the workplace. Making an example of people who do the wrong thing doesn’t work for long; employees will simply decide to keep their heads down and avoid being exposed. Worse, they are likely to hide problems and present everything in a positive light. This makes it impossible to recognise and resolve problems as they arise. The consequence will be a culture of denial in which employees are only partly engaged in what they do and hold back from contributing to improvements. As they relentlessly reduce the levels of waste in an organisation, lean improvement efforts invariably unearth problems. The challenge is to welcome these problems as they emerge, and then find ways to resolve them.

New mindsets drive new behaviours thus new actions. So having Right Lean Mindset is the Key to start Kaizen journey!

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In recent years there seems to be an almost maniacal rush to “Get Kaizen,” or “Get Lean” as if there is a finish line in the process. There are many organisations, who want to do Kaizen joust because their competitor is doing same. but the long term philosophy and vision behind Kaizen efforts is not understood. Rapid results and large gains are, of course, part of implementing Lean Kaizen, and there is nothing wrong with the expectation of large benefits. The problem occurs when the short-term push for results crosses paths with some of the philosophical elements, which require a long-term view.

For example, we have led many focused improvement activities, called the “Kaizen Workshops” or “Gemba Kaizen Workshops”. It is exhilarating to see the waste, come up with innovative ideas for waste reduction, and actually make the changes right then and there. The results are almost always astounding to the participants. The new process takes a fraction of the space, there is a clearer understanding of flow, often fewer people are needed, and equipment that had been overproducing is often surplused. The team disbands after a big celebration. But two weeks later the process keeps stopping, some operations are overproducing, the visual management board is not kept up, and it’s business as usual, fighting one fire after another.

The typical problem is that none of the support systems were put in place to sustain what was accomplished in the one-week Kaizen Workshops. Skilled leadership is absent, for example. Standardized plans for reacting to breakdowns are lacking. There is no good process for daily equipment maintenance. Standardized work may be posted, but it is not understood or followed. The unseasoned manager who does not understand will start to revert to the old process, allowing inventory to build up and trying to drive production through brute force methods to chase the schedule.

Kaizen philosophy is to build a lasting learning organization in which problems are constantly surfaced and team associates are equipped with the tools to eliminate waste. When this occurs, you are developing a long-term capability for improvement and adaptation to the environment. A well-executed kaizen workshop can be a step in teaching people what is possible. But it should be part of a longer term strategy for developing lean value streams and ultimately a lean kaizen enterprise.

Clear direction and vision must be set for for guiding improvements. Complete analysis on current systems and priorities must be done to identify key areas of improvement and priorities for same. Trying to do many things at a go is often a recipe for failure. All efforts must be focused on few key areas first but based on a carefully thought plan and set targets. Every Kaizen activity done must be linked to business objectives not the other way round. RIB Consulting helps you set clear direction so that all Kaizen effort are focused on Key areas to achieve the desired results.

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